Credit card companies are raising interest rates and fees seven months before new rules go into effect that will limit their ability do so, much to the irritation of Congress and consumer advocates.

An Israeli submarine sailed the Suez Canal to the Red Sea as part of a naval drill last month, defense sources said on Friday, describing the unusual maneuver as a show of strategic reach in the face of Iran.

Israel long kept its three Dolphin-class submarines, which are widely assumed to carry nuclear missiles, away from Suez so as not to expose them to the gaze of Egyptian harbormasters.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Friday she is resigning from office at the end of the month, raising speculation that she would focus on a run for the White House in the 2012 race.

The more I think about this, the less sense it makes. 2021 is a long way off, and she could finish the current term as Governor and simply choose not to run for another term. But this report says she is stepping down and Alaska's Lt. Government will take over.

There is more to this than meets the eye!

It’s been crystal clear for some time that the media is nothing more than a slimy, lie machine. If you hear something from the mass media you can take it for granted that it’s a lie or certainly an exaggeration or a distortion. In certain cases where the news doesn’t fit with the media’s agenda they just don’t report it at all, as in the hijacking of the Free Gaza ship and the imprisonment of the passengers. Yesterday we learned that this doesn’t even touch the level of corruption that defines today’s mass media. Yesterday we saw what they have been up to at the Washington Post. It’s painful to read the spin coming out of the mouths of the corporate heads.

So, Peres wants to make peace with the Saudis, the Kazakhs, the Indonesians, the Mauritanians, even Muslims in the innermost parts of Black Africa. It is only the Palestinians he insists on stealing their land, arrogating their rights and narrowing their horizons.

It is nearly impossible to gauge the level of Israeli-Zionist hypocrisy. Indeed, one wouldn't go too far by saying that Israel is the world's most hypocritical nation-state.

The evidence is as conspicuous as overwhelming.

Former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney revealed in a phone call posted online that she is in an Israeli prison with others who attempted to run a blockade to deliver supplies to Gaza.

McKinney and about 18 other activists in Israeli custody for the past three days will likely be released by Sunday, according to the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C.

While President Obama circumnavigates the globe, talking loftily of peace and engagement with the peoples of the world -- in language largely cribbed from old George Bush speeches, but presented in a far more photogenic, plausive package -- this is the real face that the United States is showing to the world.

Regulators shut down John Warner Bank of Clinton, Ill.; First State Bank of Winchester in Winchester, Ill.; Rock River Bank of Oregon, Ill.; Elizabeth State Bank of Elizabeth, Ill.; Danville, Ill.-based The First National Bank of Danville; Founders Bank of Worth, Ill.; and Dallas-based Millennium State Bank of Texas, bringing the number of U.S. bank failures this year to 52.

The mood of the Afghan people has tipped into a popular revolt in some parts of southern Afghanistan, presenting incoming American forces with an even harder job than expected in reversing military losses to the Taliban and winning over the population.

Villagers in some districts have taken up arms against foreign troops to protect their homes or in anger after losing relatives in airstrikes, several community representatives interviewed said. Others have been moved to join the insurgents out of poverty or simply because the Taliban’s influence is so pervasive here.

Despite repeated demands from the Obama Administration, the right-wing Israeli government has repeatedly rejected the call and insisted that the US will eventually change its mind. The move has proved relatively popular, and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s approval rating has remained strong.

Marine commanders said Taliban fighters seemed to have melted into the surrounding countryside rather than staying to fight the large U.S. force.

It is being reported today that an unnamed US soldier and three Afghan soldiers were ambushed and captured Tuesday by the Taliban in Afghanistan’s restive Paktika Province. The military confirmed that the soldier was missing and believed captured.

The Barack Obama administration has given new prominence to a Bush administration charge that Iran is providing military training and assistance to the Taliban in Afghanistan, for which no evidence has ever been produced, and which has been discredited by data obtained by IPS from the Pentagon itself.

CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus declared in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee Apr. 1, "In Afghanistan, Iran appears to have hedged its longstanding public support for the Karzai government by providing opportunistic support to the Taliban."

Iran's standoff with the West escalated with the European Union considering pulling out all 27 of its ambassadors in retaliation for the recent detentions of several local employees of the British Embassy in Tehran, despite Iranian claims that all but one had been released.

The tranquility of the rolling green fields and lush vineyards belie it, but many fear that another summer war between Russia and Georgia like the one 11 months ago which killed hundreds of civilians is no more than a stutter of automatic gunfire away from breaking out. And if it happens, this standoff at Ergneti could be the flashpoint.

Russian troops this week embarked on large-scale war games in the North Caucasus, just a few dozen miles away, preparation for "potential conflict situations in the region," the generals say. Similar exercises preceded the war last summer.

Six Illinois banks and one bank in Texas were shuttered Thursday as government regulators proposed new rules for private equity firms seeking to take over failed banks.

That's more than double the 25 which failed in all of 2008 and the three closed in 2007. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of all seven. The total cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund from the seven closings will be $314.3 million, the FDIC said.

A powerful Iranian cleric said on Friday that British embassy local staff arrested for allegedly stoking post-election unrest will be put on trial, a move that prompted coordinated protests from European governments.

The United States is slated to hand over some $750 million in mostly military aid to Colombia this year. The potential contribution of US taxpayers’ money to fund the killing of innocent people — though likely inadvertent on the part of the Colombian government — will almost certainly raise eyebrows among human-rights activists and others who have long criticized the Colombian government’s actions in its war against cocaine and insurgents.

At the heart of the problem is the Colombian government’s practice of paying soldiers for dead bodies of FARC members. Predictably, the incentive has led some soldiers to kill innocent civilians, dress their bodies up as FARC rebels, and hand them in for cash.

A corporation is not a person. It is an abstraction: an organizational structure that feels no remorse and has no morality, no life, no soul. Yet the modern corporation – still just an arbitrary legal entity – enjoys the same rights as you or I. It has the right to free speech, to own property, to lobby government officials and protect against self-incrimination.

Hungary’s lawmakers rejected constitutional amendments to make Holocaust denial a punishable offense.

Some local Jewish community leaders believe that Monday's vote secured the first parliamentary victory for Jobbik, a rapidly rising local neo-Nazi movement widely predicted to win several seats in the national elections due within a year.

The proposals, put forth by the ruling Socialist caretaker government, attracted fewer than half the votes needed to adopt a constitutional amendment.

Amnesty International on Thursday accused Israeli forces of war crimes, saying they used children as human shields and conducted wanton attacks on civilians during their offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The London-based human rights group also accused Hamas of war crimes, but said it found no evidence that the Islamist rulers of Gaza used civilians as human shields during the 22-day offensive Israel launched on December 28.

I have no doubt whatsoever that Shimon Peres, the President of the criminal state of Israel, would be the main winner in any international championship for the world’s worst liar and hypocrite.

It appears that the U.S. Mainstream media is going to ignore this story even though Cynthia McKinney was once a Congresswoman from Georgia and a Presidential candidate. How odd. What does this say about the news we receive daily from the mainstream media. The New York Times Boasts "All the News that’s fit to Print". Apparently this act of piracy and cowardly behavior isn’t fit to print. I condemn the New York Times for failing to print this news that they are fully aware of.

New evidence suggests the Air France jet which crashed into the Atlantic with 228 on-board broke up over a number of minutes, rather than in one catastrophic incident.

Recent revelations concerning the U.S. importing Taliban members into Iraq to foster false flag terrorism is merely the tip of the iceberg when compared to the U.S. intelligence complex’s multi-decade history in sponsoring Sunni Al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist groups around the world.

Torture is a prosecutable war crime under US domestic laws: The Convention Against Torture(CAT) and the 1996 War Crimes Act. It is also a prosecutable war crime under the Nuremberg & Tokyo Protocols written by the United States of America after WWII. It is a prosecutable war crime under the Geneva Conventions General Article III of 1949. And all it takes to be charged, convicted and imprisoned-or hanged, is for anyone who is convicted in a court of law for violating any one of these laws. And it only takes the commission of ONE single offense for the wheels of justice to roll over the offenders. Not 100. Not 180. Just one.

Following a testy exchange during Wednesday’s briefing with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas told CNSNews.com that not even Richard Nixon tried to control the press the way President Obama is trying to control the press.

“Nixon didn’t try to do that,” Thomas said. “They couldn’t control (the media). They didn’t try.

“What the hell do they think we are, puppets?” Thomas said. “They’re supposed to stay out of our business. They are our public servants. We pay them.”

Alec Baldwin, Hollywood actor and left activist, has a new cause. Free Bernard Madoff! Yes, really.

Who robbed you of $12 trillion from your Social Security system? Was it me or those you elected? Why won't your newsmen ask that question? Was it me who robbed you of trillions in Iraq? Was it me or those who you willingly elected? Republicans and Democrats? Was it me who rendered your banks insolvent? Was it me who disrupted Wall Street and destroyed investor confidence? Was it me who threatens to topple the global economic system? Or was it your own elected leaders?

On June 30th, the Israeli Navy attacked and captured the unarmed humanitarian aid boat The Spirit of Humanity. This is the second time that the Israeli navy has attacked a Free Gaza Movement boat while it was attempting to deliver medical supplies, building equipment, and children's toys to the Port of Gaza.

Take action below to demand the release of The Spirit of Humanity's crew and passengers!

Nearly a day after the detention of former US lawmaker Cynthia McKinney by Israeli forces, Washington has yet to make a reaction.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Richard Falk, denounced the unlawful naval seizure by an Israeli gunboat on the high seas of a ship carrying medicine and reconstruction material to blockaded people of Gaza.

Former U.S. lawmaker and Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney and several other human rights activists remained in an Israeli prison Thursday after refusing to sign a deportation form that they claim is self-incriminating.

In a press release from the Green Party, McKinney said the form states that the Spirit of Humanity, a Greek-flagged relief boat carrying 21 activists, medical supplies, cement, olive trees and children's toys en route to Gaza, was violating the Israeli blockade and trespassing the country's territorial waters.

"On that last question, I don’t know the answer, actually. I think I have to refer you to the Government of Israel. "

"Rich get richer, poor get poorer, families on the street, govt doesn't care. God bless the usa, but can He save it?"

A message smuggled out of the Ramla Givon prison in an email from members of the solidarity boat crew arrested earlier this week has accused the Israeli authorities of maltreatment and keeping them in poor conditions.

The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday accused the Obama administration of using statements elicited through torture to justify the confinement of a detainee it represents at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The ACLU is asking a federal judge to throw out those statements and others made by Mohammed Jawad, an Afghan who may have been as young as 12 when he was captured. His attorney argued that Jawad was abused in U.S. custody, threatened and subjected to intense sleep deprivation.

Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth said today she was canceling plans for an exclusive "salon" at her home where for as much as $250,000, the Post offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record access to "those powerful few" — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and even the paper’s own reporters and editors.

The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he felt it was a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff."

"This market continues to be propped up by government intervention and manipulation."

No, really?!

By the way, market manipulation is illegal.

Of course when you own the police force you can do whatever you damn well please, right?
Print

That didn’t take long.

“Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth today canceled plans for a series of policy dinners at her home after learning that marketing fliers offered lobbyists access to Obama administration officials, members of Congress and Post journalists in exchange for payments as high as $250,000.”

The interrogation and detention regime implemented by the US resulted in the deaths of over 100 detainees in US custody ? at least [see "Command?s Responsibility," a Human Rights First report from 2006, PDF]. While some of those deaths were the result of "rogue" interrogators and agents, many were caused by the methods authorized at the highest levels of the Bush White House, including extreme stress positions, hypothermia, sleep deprivation and others. Aside from the fact that they cause immense pain, that?s one reason we?ve always considered those tactics to be "torture" when used by others ? because they inflict serious harm, and can even kill people.

Amnesty International issued a 105-page report today detailing war crimes committed by the Israeli military during its 22-day military offensive against the Gaza Strip. The attack killed over 1,400 Palestinians and wounded 5,000 others. It also destroyed over 3,000 homes.

Bringing fresh attention to its blockade of the Gaza Strip, Israel on Tuesday turned back a boat attempting to deliver three tons of medical supplies to Gazans.

President Barack Obama is actively considering issuing an executive order authorizing the continued, indefinite detention of terrorism suspects, without trial, according to the Washington Post and Pro Publica. The news is widely being treated as a shocking about-face for a president who has criticized his predecessor's harsh tactics in dealing with alleged terrorists. But for anybody paying attention, this is just one more step along a path the president has has already traveled, with indefinite detention hinted at in a May speech and even championed by the Obama administration in legal papers filed in March.

The controversial climate bill that is set to be taken up by the Senate on Monday after its passage in the House will legislate home inspections by government regulators who will demand to audit every aspect of your property under the threat of substantial and repeated fines if their visits are denied or their demands not satisfied.

Let’s see now… The Israelis invade Gaza and murder 1500 people in cold blood using banned weapons and destroying the infrastructure so that the people are now living in the rubble and… Obama says nothing. Cynthia McKinney along with a Nobel Peace Prize winner and 20 or so other people get kidnapped on the high seas, while trying to deliver aid to these people and this same psychopathic, thug nation or… should I call it a repug-nation? Well… this same murderous collection of international criminals hijacks their boat and arrests them and… Obama says nothing.

The $787 billion U.S. economic stimulus package may not be able to live up to lofty expectations, painting President Barack Obama into a policy corner once the money runs out.

With only a little under 7 percent of the stimulus actually paid out so far, it is a bit early to try to measure success. However, the White House is already fielding questions about whether another spending package will be needed.

The White House has dismissed as "misinformation" a reported Iranian police claim that the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, who has emerged as an emblem of the political uprising, was staged.

An economy bigger than Russia, Brazil, Canada, India or Spain is in imminent risk of defaulting on its debts.

Which nation am I talking about?

Not a country . . . but the state of California.

That may be one reason that the mainstream news commentators hate bloggers so much. The more people who get their news from blogs instead of mainstream news sources, the smaller their audience, and the less the MSM can charge for the kind of "nonconfrontational access" which leads to puff pieces for the big boys.

European Union members are threatening the collective withdrawal of their ambassadors from Iran to secure the release of the British embassy employees being held by the authorities.

A senior Bank of England official today compared the banking system over the last 20 years to the South Sea bubble of the early 18th century and said bankers had merely "resorted to the roulette wheel" to keep up with each other.

In his speech at Bar Ilan University on June 14, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed a new Israeli “peace plan,” with preconditions that a Palestinian negotiator must first meet before he would “promptly” engage in “unconditional” bilateral talks to meet an international consensus demanding the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel . His preconditions added to the fourteen conditions the former Israeli government of comatose Ariel Sharon attached to Israel's adoption in grudge of the 2003 Road Map blueprint for peace with the Palestinian side, on the basis of which the U.S.