The Patriotic Activist

Despite what you may have read, this issue is not about nuclear proliferation—in fact an attack would increase the likelihood that Iran would acquire a nuclear weapon, says Sarah van Gelder.

Will Washington Listen?

Two weeks ago, I was alarmed to learn that congressional Democrats were sponsoring Resolution 362, which encourages what amounts to an act of war against Iran.

Today, there are more than 230 co-sponsors of the House resolution, but there is also growing mobilization to stop passage of Res. 362. What is especially stirring opposition is the provision that calls for:

“Prohibiting the export to Iran of all refined petroleum products; imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran; and prohibiting the international movement of all Iranian officials not involved in negotiating the suspension of Iran’s nuclear program.”

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Nervous about whether your corner Starbucks is still going to be there to deliver that jolt of caffeine?

It’s a fair question plenty of folks are asking after Starbucks Corp. announced that it would shut 616 company-owned stores by early 2009 as part of a broader plan to boost profit and traffic at its U.S. locations.

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Dan Rather and his lawyers were back in a Lower Manhattan courthouse yesterday for yet another round in Mr. Rather’s ongoing $70 million civil lawsuit against his former employers.

Over the course of a 45-minute hearing in front of Justice Ira Gammerman, tempers occasionally flared as the lawyers for both sides argued over a number of issues, ranging from the scheduling of depositions to the transparency of the discovery process.

On the latter issue, Mr. Rather and his lawyers petitioned the justice to release a number of key documents turned up in discovery. Mr. Rather’s lead attorney, Marty Gold, suggested to Justice Gammerman that the documents, if released, would help refute CBS’s repeated, public characterization of Mr. Rather’s claims in the suit as a fantasy. He said that of the thousands of documents handed over by CBS, Mr. Rather would like to give the public access to roughly 10.

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American forces have abandoned the outpost in northeastern Afghanistan where nine American soldiers were killed Sunday in a heavy attack by insurgents, NATO officials said Wednesday.

The withdrawal handed a propaganda victory to the Taliban, and insurgents were quick to move into the village of Wanat beside the abandoned outpost, Afghan officials said. Insurgents nearly overran the barely built outpost in a dawn raid on Sunday, the most deadly assault for United States forces in Afghanistan since 2005.

Those forces have fought some of their most difficult battles in Kunar and Nuristan Provinces, with their thickly forested mountainsides and steep ravines. Guerrillas mount ambushes and rocket attacks from the mountains and then easily escape.

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Wachovia (WB) is in the cross hairs after the struggling Charlotte, N.C., bank got downgraded by Oppenheimer analyst Meredith Whitney. Whitney cut her rating to underperform from hold Tuesday, a day after Wachovia shares closed below $10 apiece for the first time in 17 years. Whitney, who was an early critic of Citi (C) last fall before the financial sector felt the full brunt of the credit crunch, says that among the major banks Wachovia will face the “greatest reckoning” with reduced profit opportunities and surging credit costs.

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Now that the federal government has thrown a lifeline to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, taxpayers could be on the hook for billions more if the crisis of confidence spreads.

There were encouraging signs Monday for the rescue plan, but also signs of concern — notably on Wall Street, where shares of the two companies slumped further — that the plan won’t be enough.

Other banks are already teetering: National City Corp. shares fell nearly 15 percent on rumors of financial trouble, even though it said it was experiencing no unusual depositor or creditor activity. And Washington Mutual Inc.’s shares fell 35 percent, to a paltry $3.23 amid worries about whether it had enough cash to handle the mortgage market downturn. WaMu said that it did.

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US taxpayers are about to find out what their long-standing and (strictly speaking) non-existent guarantee of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will cost them. One way to think of it is this: take the US national debt of roughly $9,000bn and add $5,000bn. Not bad for an obligation still officially denied.

In the end, that astounding prospect might be the outcome. Partial or outright nationalisation of the housing lenders – colossal pseudo-private entities that own and underwrite US housing loans – would add some or all of their $5,000bn (€3,144bn, £2,513bn) in liabilities to the government’s balance sheet. While it is true that the agencies (unlike the government) own housing-related assets that roughly match those liabilities, the still-collapsing housing market makes this a lot less reassuring than one could wish.

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Iran’s armed forces would launch devastating strikes against Israel and 32 American bases in the Mideast if these countries were to attack, a senior military official said on Saturday.

Iran carried out a series of missile tests this week in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, prompting the United States to issue a warning that it would defend Israel in the event of an Iranian attack. Israel’s Air Force last month conducted drills seen as a rehearsal for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

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IndyMac Bank’s assets were seized by federal regulators on Friday after the mortgage lender succumbed to the pressures of tighter credit, tumbling home prices and rising foreclosures.

The bank is the largest regulated thrift to fail and the second largest financial institution to close in U.S. history, regulators said.

The Office of Thrift Supervision said it transferred IndyMac’s operations to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation because it did not think the lender could meet its depositors’ demands.

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Just found this today, Don’t know who this radio host is, but if his leaks are true then the US Economy will collapse by the end of 08.

He lists things that were leaked to him because finally some congress members have awaken from the lies.

Ron Paul even stated that something big is going to happen.

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When Brian Hebert’s family built his Hillsborough County home, they were looking for something both efficient and unique.

So they built their home underground.

“It’s basically like a bomb shelter,” Hebert says.

The house looks like a single story home in the hilliest part of Hillsborough County. But in reality, most of the home sits underground.

Building underground was possible because the land sits 70 feet above sea level. The house was built by excavating through a hill.

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The number of homeowners stung by the rout in the U.S. housing market jumped last month as foreclosure filings grew by more than 50 percent compared with June a year ago, according to data released Thursday.

Nationwide, 252,363 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice in June, up 53 percent from the same month last year, but down 3 percent from May, RealtyTrac Inc. said. One in every 501 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing last month.

Foreclosure filings increased from a year earlier in all but 11 states. Nevada, California, Arizona, Florida and Michigan continued to have the highest foreclosure rates.

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Iran test-fired nine missiles on Wednesday and warned the United States and Israel it was ready to retaliate if they attacked the Islamic Republic over its disputed nuclear projects.

Washington, which says Iran seeks atomic bombs, told Tehran to halt further tests if it wanted the world to trust it. Iran, the world’s fourth largest oil producer, insists its nuclear program aims only at generating electricity.

Rising tensions have rattled financial markets. Oil prices, which had slipped from record highs, rebounded about $2 a barrel after Wednesday’s tests.

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Silver prices have vaulted an extraordinary 106% in the past two and a half years.

More impressive, silver prices have gained 33% since mid December.

Now, compare that to how U.S. stocks have fared since then: The Dow Jones Industrial Average has plunged 13.6%; The Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 10.5%; The S&P 500 Index has fallen 11.1%.

Like gold, silver is a safe haven from inflation and a weak dollar. The prices of the two metals often move parallel to one another. However, silver is poised to rocket - handing investors not only gains in our bear-market economy, but steeper gains than gold.

James Turk, founder of GoldMoney, said in his annual forecast that the U.S. economy “will get much worse in 2008, making gold the premier asset of choice, but not the best performing precious metal. That honor will go to silver, which I expect will clear $30 in 2008.”

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Iran started war games on Monday and its president rejected a demand by major powers that it stop enriching uranium as “illegitimate,” showing no sign of backing down in a stand-off over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

Missile units of the elite Revolutionary Guards’ naval and air forces began war games, Iranian news agencies said, hours after the U.S. Navy said it had begun exercises in the Gulf.

Speculation about an attack on the world’s fourth biggest oil exporter over its nuclear program rose after a report last month said Israel had practiced such a strike. Fears of military confrontation helped send world oil prices to record highs.

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Watching Wall Street and the American real-estate market crumble over the past 10 months has not inspired great confidence in our wonderful free-market economy or the land pirates who run it. As someone who recently wrestled with the causes and consequences of the Great Depression, I find the current economic shipwreck not merely spooky but downright terrifying.

Working as a historian is a discouraging business. No one seems to learn anything from history - that’s pretty much a given - but we keep hoping. As a chronicler of the 19th century American West, I had my work cut out when a family friend asked me to write a biography of her father, Judge Wilson McCarthy.

Herbert Hoover appointed McCarthy to represent Western Democrats on the board of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, Hoover’s only real response to the worst economic disaster in American history. The RFC attempted to restore liquidity to the economy by getting cash out from underneath mattresses and into circulation.

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Latino gang members were hunting for black people in the Harbor Gateway community of Los Angeles.

Age was not a factor. Neither was gender.

Cheryl Green, 14, was on her scooter, talking to friends when a hail of bullets killed the 8th-grader and injured several other black youngsters.

That was December 2006. But the race-motivated carnage has only increased since then, say law-enforcement authorities from coast to coast – with Hispanic gangs targeting blacks and black gang reciprocating as their communities are increasing surrounded by the exploding population of Hispanics, much of it fueled by illegal immigration.

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One of two Venezuelans accused by the US of backing Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia movement, has told Al Jazeera he is appealing against a US treasury department decision to freeze all his US-based assets.

His comments on Saturday come after the US once again accused Venezuela of harbouring individuals who Washington considers “dangerous terrorists”.

Fawzi Kanaan, who runs a small, unnamed travel agency in Caracas, arrived in Venezuela in 1986, fleeing the civil war in Lebanon.

“I have nothing to do with Iran or Hezbollah. I don’t deal with politics at all,” he said.

“I have been to Iran only once in 1976, just for one night. That was more than 42 years ago.”

But the US describes Kanaan as a “Hezbollah supporter” and “significant provider of financial support to Hezbollah”.

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Oil’s meteoric rise since the start of the year to nearly $150 has distressed consumers and policy makers the world over, but the stark reality is prices are likely to rise higher still.

For two decades, prices were relatively stable, but then they rose seven-fold from a trough below $20 in 2001. Since breaching the $100 mark on the first trading day of this year they have risen around 45 percent.

Given such momentum, politicians’ efforts to bring the price down could well be a waste of energy.

“It rose so fast it’s got a bubble feel, but bubbles can go on for very sustained periods, and underlying that is an extremely tight fundamental position,” said Stephen Thornber, head of global energy research at Threadneedle Asset Management.

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A federal judge in New York has ordered Google to turn over to Viacom a database linking users of YouTube, the Web’s largest video site by far, with every clip they have watched there.

The order raised concerns among users and privacy advocates that the online video viewing habits of tens of millions of people could be exposed. But Google and Viacom said they were hoping to come up with a way to protect the anonymity of YouTube viewers.

Viacom said that the information would be safeguarded by a protective order restricting access to the data to outside advisers, who will use it solely to press Viacom’s $1 billion copyright suit against Google.

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