Lots of very interesting news.................

[Guest guest]

Lou Dobbs on the North American Union

 

4 Minute Video

 

President Bush signed a formal agreement that will end the United States as

we know it, and he took the step without approval from either the U.S.

Congress or the people of the United States.

 

Click here to watch

_http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13854.htm_

(http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13854.htm)

==

_http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle & code=COR20060617 & a

rticleId=2663_

(http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle & code=COR20060617 & art\

icleId=2663)

 

 

Despite having no authorization from Congress, the Bush administration has

launched extensive working-group activity to implement a trilateral agreement

with Mexico and Canada.

 

The membership of the working groups has not been published, nor has their

work product been disclosed, despite two years of massive effort within the

executive branches of the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

 

The groups, working under the North American Free Trade Agreement office in

the Department of Commerce, are to implement the Security and Prosperity

Partnership, or SPP, signed by President Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and

then-Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005.

 

 

The trilateral agreement, signed as a joint declaration not submitted to

Congress for review, led to the creation of the SPP office within the

Department

of Commerce.

 

The SPP report to the heads of state of the U.S., Mexico and Canada, --

released June 27, 2005, -- lists some 20 different working groups spanning a

wide

variety of issues ranging from e-commerce, to aviation policy, to borders

and immigration, involving the activity of multiple U.S. government agencies.

 

 

===

Robert Parry: The '06 Stakes Just Got Raised

_http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/070106X.shtml_

(http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070106X.shtml)

" The narrow margin of the US Supreme Court’s rebuke to George W. Bush on

military tribunals highlights the stakes on the table for the November 2006

Congressional elections, " writes Robert Parry. " It is a strong possibility that

if the Republicans retain control of the US Congress in the November 2006

elections, Bush will get to fill at least one more Supreme Court vacancy. "

===

CEOs earn 262 times pay of average worker

June 21, 2006, ABC News/Reuters

_http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2104151_

(http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2104151)

Chief executive officers in the United States earned 262 times the pay of an

average worker in 2005. In fact, a CEO earned more in one workday than an

average worker earned in 52 weeks, said the Economic Policy Institute in

Washington, D.C. The typical worker's compensation averaged just under $42,000

for

the year, while the average CEO brought home almost $11 million. In 1965,

U.S. CEOs at major companies earned 24 times a worker's pay. In recent years,

compensation has been a hot issue with shareholders who have been bombarded

with news stories about chief executives who are given multimillion dollar

bonus and pay packages even if shares have declined. The chief executives of 11

of the largest companies were awarded a total of $865 million in pay in the

last two years, even as they presided over a total loss of $640 billion in

shareholder value, a recent study from governance firm the Corporate Library,

found.

===

_http://www.apfn.net/MESSAGEBOARD/07-07-04/discussion.cgi.24.html_

(http://www.apfn.net/MESSAGEBOARD/07-07-04/discussion.cgi.24.html)

Pentagon " Misplaces " 2.3 TRILLION DOLLARS!!!

Wed Jul 7, 2004 19:00

64.12.116.205

 

US Government " misplaces " $3.3 trillion

Beyond Enron and WorldCom lies a much bigger scandal: the " misplacement " of

over $3 trillion of taxpayers' money by the US government. This story hasn’t

gone completely unreported. For example, CBS News quoted Donald Rumsfeld as

saying, " according to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in

transactions. "

 

According to Catherine Austin Fitts, former Assistant Secretary of Housing

and Urban Development (HUD), " total undocumented accounting adjustments [...]

for the Department of Defense [and HUD for fiscal 1998-2000] amount to a

whopping $3.3 trillion, or $11,700 for every American. " More

 

_http://www.anxietyculture.com/cbs.htm_

(http://www.anxietyculture.com/cbs.htm)

 

Pentagon " misplaces " $2.3 trillion

 

" According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions. "

(Donald Rumsfeld, quoted on CBS News, 29/1/02)

 

Rumsfeld admitted that the Pentagon misplaced $2.3 trillion. This money has

disappeared – nobody knows where it's gone. Government officials have blamed

the accounting systems – the US Department of Defense has failed to produce

independently audited accounts since 1995.

 

See the full CBS News story:

_http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml_

(http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml)

(Note: the full CBS text is also given below)

 

US Department of Defense confirms trillions " loss "

 

The $2.3 trillion figure is confirmed in the following DoD documents (which

include transcripts of testimony before the House Budget Committee and a

speech by Rumsfeld):

 

_http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Apr2002/n04032002_200204033.html_

(http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Apr2002/n04032002_200204033.html)

_http://www.defenselink.mil/speeches/2001/s20010910-secdef.html_

(http://www.defenselink.mil/speeches/2001/s20010910-secdef.html)

_http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2002/n02202002_200202201.html_

(http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2002/n02202002_200202201.html)

_http://www.defenselink.mil/speeches/2001/s20010711-depsecdef2.html_

(http://www.defenselink.mil/speeches/2001/s20010711-depsecdef2.html)

 

===

Weapons in outer space:

 

TENSIONS IN the United Nations over space-based weapons ran to new heights

recently when the United States delivered a hard-line statement on its right

to develop such weapons. This adds to the alarming change of course last year

when the United States became the first country to oppose the annual non

binding resolution on Preventing an Arms Race in Outer Space. Essentially the

world considers it important to develop a treaty to prevent an arms race in

space by prohibiting weapons there. The need for a treaty is compounded by the

US

withdrawal in 2002 from the ABM Treaty, which had key restrictions on space

weapons.

_http://tinyurl.com/jvlnb_ (http://tinyurl.com/jvlnb)

===

Engineers Create Vehicle that Travels from Vancouver to Halifax on a Gallon

of Gas

June 20, 2006, PHYSORG.COM

_http://www.physorg.com/news70040977.html_

(http://www.physorg.com/news70040977.html)

A team of engineering students from The University of British Columbia has

built a vehicle so efficient that it could travel from Vancouver to Halifax on

a gallon of gasoline. The futuristic-looking, single-occupancy vehicle won

top prize at a recent international competition, marking the UBC team’s

fourth

win in as many years. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Supermileage

Competition took place June 9 in Marshall, Michigan. Forty teams from

Canada, the U.S. and India competed in designing and building the most

fuel-efficient vehicle. “We achieved this level of efficiency by optimizing

many aspects

of the vehicle design, including: aerodynamics, light-weight construction, a

small displacement engine (54 cc), and conservative driving habits,†says

Team Captain Kevin Li. The UBC design...achieved 3,145 miles per US gallon.

_Supermileage_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_Supermileage_Competition) ...is

an annual student competition that challenges students to design, build, and

drive a single person vehicle (powered solely by a gasoline engine) to achieve

the best fuel mileage possible. The vehicle must be powered by only an

internal combustion engine, with no assistance from electric motors or human

propulsion.

Note: Why don't we see articles like this in the mainstream media? Even if

this vehicle is ultra lightweight and has a top speed of only 30 mph, why

can't we design heavier, faster cars which get just 10% of what this car got?

For

answers to this question, see

_http://www.WantToKnow.info/050711carmileageaveragempg_

(http://www.wanttoknow.info/050711carmileageaveragempg)

===

 

_http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13790.htm_

(http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13790.htm)

 

 

" Insurgents " offer to halt attacks in Iraq

 

By Associated Press

 

Eleven Sunni insurgent groups have offered an immediate halt to all attacks

-- including those on American troops -- if the United States agrees to

withdraw foreign forces from Iraq in two years, insurgent and government

officials

told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

 

 

===

 

_http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/062906LA.shtml_

(http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/062906LA.shtml)

 

Democrats Vow to Block Pay Raises Until Minimum Wage Increased

Reuters

Tuesday 27 June 2006

Washington - Democrats ratcheted up their election-year push for an increase

in the federal minimum wage Tuesday by promising to block a congressional

pay hike unless some of the lowest-paid hourly workers get their first raise in

nearly a decade.

" Congress is going to have earn its raise by putting American workers first:

A raise for workers before a raise for Congress, " said Senate Democratic

leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

Reid refused to spell out exactly how he will block a $3,300 pay raise

scheduled for January 1 for members of Congress, who currently earn $165,200

annually. He said with 40 Senate Democrats backing the maneuver, " We can stop

anything they (Republicans) try to do with a congressional pay raise. "

Democrats in the House and Senate want the $5.15-per-hour federal minimum

wage, in place since 1997, to rise in 70-cent increments to $7.25 by January 1,

2009.

In arguing for the minimum-wage increase, Democrats are emphasizing that

salaries for members of Congress have risen $31,600 during the time the minimum

wage has been frozen.

They complain that rising costs for gasoline, utilities, education and food

have taken a chunk out of minimum-wage paychecks, which sometimes have to

support entire families.

=====

In an unprecedented power grab, the FDA has declared that all drug companies

are now immune to lawsuits on any drug that has been granted FDA

approval.

 

It's the biggest handout to drug companies ever, and the action

further establishes the FDA as a rogue agency acting to protect Big

Pharma, with no respect for the laws of the land or the safety of

health consumers.

 

Read the full, astonishing story at:

_http://www.newstarghttp://www.newhttp_

(http://www.newstarget.com/019497.html)

==

_http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2006/07/01/social_security/print.html_

(http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2006/07/01/social_security/print.html)

Salon.com

July 1, 2006

 

The president quietly threatens to gut Social Security

again, and the timing could be good for Democrats.

 

By Joe Conason

(Go to link for entire article.)

 

But pretending to be a fiscal conservative invariably

means talking about the anticipated future problems of

" entitlement programs " such as Medicare, Medicaid and

Social Security. Speaking before a friendly audience at

the conservative think tank, Bush could not resist

congratulating himself for his past effort to " reform "

the nation's retirement security program, and vowing

that he and the Republicans in Congress would finish

the job before he leaves office. His remarks on Social

Security are worth quoting in full -- if only because

he was so politically reckless as to mention his

greatest political failure as midterm elections

approach.

 

" As you might recall, I addressed that issue last year,

focusing on Social Security reform, " said Bush. " I'm

not through talking about the issue. I spent some time

today in the Oval Office with the United States

senators, and they're not through talking about the

issue either. It's important for this country

[applause] -- I know it's hard politically to address

these issues. Sometimes it just seems easier for people

to say, we'll deal with it later on. Now is the time

for the Congress and the president to work together to

reform Medicare and reform Social Security so we can

leave behind a solvent balance sheet for our next

generation of Americans.

 

" If we can't get it done this year, I'm going to try

next year, " he went on. " And if we can't get it done

next year, I'm going to try the year after that,

because it is the right thing to do. "

 

For while Bush may have spoken out of turn in a season

when politicians prefer not to test voter sentiment on

this issue, the privatization struggle is very much on

the minds of his fellow Republicans.

Naturally the Republicans aren't eager to discuss their

Social Security scheme, which the public rejected so

resoundingly last year. They are biding their time. For

now they will talk instead about terrorism, flag

burning, abortion and gays. And if they maintain or

expand their majority in both houses, they will proceed

to dismantle the most successful government program in

history.

 

There is only one way to make sure that doesn't happen.

Jane Mayer | The Hidden Power

_http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070506P.shtml_

(http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070506P.shtml)

" Most Americans, even those who follow politics closely, have probably never

heard of [David S.] Addington, [Vice-President Cheney’s chief of staff and

his longtime principal legal adviser]. But current and former administration

officials say that he has played a central role in shaping the

administration’

s legal strategy for the war on terror. Known as the New Paradigm, this

strategy rests on a reading of the Constitution that few legal scholars share -

namely, that the president, as commander in chief, has the authority to

disregard virtually all previously known legal boundaries, if national security

demands it, " writes Jane Mayer.

=====

Number Of Iraqi Civilians Slaughtered In America's War? As Many As 250,000

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11674.htm

 

Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In

Bush's War 2539

 

http://icasualties.org/oif/

 

The War in Iraq Costs

$293,603,112,325

See the cost in your community

http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper & Itemid=182

 

===

Not In Our Name: Vietnam, Iraq and the Voters' Pledge

 

By Dan Ellsberg

 

If the war itself was unjust, then all the victims of our firepower were

being killed without justification. That's murder.

_http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13890.htm_

(http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13890.htm)

===

The US media would have us forget that a threatening new environment was

inaugurated by Washington in September, 2002, with a major doctrinal shift

announced in its National Security Strategy to a more aggressive policy of

pre-emption against merely suspected or potential adversaries. When the US

invaded

Iraq, the unpredictable Dear Leader predictably asked: “Am I next?â€

_http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13891.htm_

(http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13891.htm)

===

(http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm)