The U.S. Commerce Department says overall new home construction dropped 10.6% in April. Also, building permits fell 4% since March.
Construction of multi-family homes, with five or more units, dropped 28%. Economic “experts” expected an increase in housing construction for April.
Pakistan is reporting that two NATO helicopters attacked a Pakistani security checkpoint in North Waziristan. Also, a U.S. drone attack killed 12 people in the same region.
No response so far from NATO forces on why they attacked a security checkpoint. This is not the first time; last year U.S. helicopters did the same thing, killing two Pakistani soldiers.
These attacks come as U.S. Senator John Kerry is in Pakistan, to try an reconcile the May 1/2 Osama bin Laden operation with Pakistani officials.
“…timely action to increase the debt limit in order to protect the full faith and credit of the United States and avoid catastrophic economic consequences for citizens.”-Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, will now use government employee retirement money to pay U.S. government debts. He pointed out that he’s not the first Treasury Secretary to do so.
Even with using retirement money, it’s estimated the government will run out of debt payment options within 11 weeks. The Federal government has spent its way to the legal debt limit of $14.3 trillion.
What Geithner, and Ben Bernanke of the Federal Reserve (a private bank), want is for Congress to raise the debt limit. But, that would only mean that our elected officials could get us even deeper in the hole.
The problem is that our Federal government is running solely on loans. Geithner wants to be able to keep borrowing money. There is a fear that no matter how drastic government spending cuts are, they might not be enough. This is a really really really bad sign.
The Treasury Department has already stopped issuing state and local governments special securities to manage their debts. Where does that leave them?
History shows that Congress loves to raise its debt limit, so it can spend more of YOUR money, and it’s partly the cause of our current situation. Some members of Congress say it’s time to pay the piper.
Could this be the real reason the U.S. doesn’t want to leave Iraq? Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made it clear that Iraq and Iran are coming together to act as a regional power.
On May 16, Maliki told Iranian media that Iraq and Iran will expand military, as well as economic, cooperation. He said the ongoing situation in the Middle East (caused by Western forces) demands that the ancient powers of Iraq and Iran must work together to create stability in the Middle East.
“The overall plan would need to be like an onion, each layer concealing the one below.”-Richard Dearlove, former SIS (MI-6) chief
When it comes to the long history of Iraq and the British Empire it’s always been about the oil.
The United Kingdom’s Secret Intelligence Service (aka MI-6, aka SIS-4) has revealed documents that show that the British interest in the invasion of Iraq was all about controlling the oil.
The report appears in the U.K. newspaper The Daily Mail. SIS officers and the Blair administration discussed ways to “new security in oil supplies” by invading Iraq. The British Empire first took over Iraq after World War 1, for the purpose of surrounding Russia in what’s called the Great Game (which many think is still going on), and mainly to develop Iraq’s oil fields. Invading Iraq in the 21st century gave the U.K. another chance at controlling that oil.
The SIS documents also show that Richard Dearlove, then boss of the intelligence service, was concerned about the legality of the invasion. He wanted the input of “Government law officers to provide assurances of legality (there has been a serious problem here).”
If you need more proof that the U.K. was in the Iraq invasion for the oil, just compare how many oil contracts went to U.S. companies, to how many went to British companies.
“It is inappropriate for anyone to relate or compare China to some west Asian and north African nations facing turmoil, and any attempt to direct the Middle East turmoil to China and change the development path chosen by the Chinese people will be futile.”-Jiang Yu, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman
This comment was in response to an interview of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. An online poll in China showed that 86% of Chinese respondents felt Clinton had insulted China.
In an exclusive interview with The Atlantic, Hillary Clinton said China’s policies are doomed to fail, she also said: “They’re worried, and they are trying to stop history, which is a fool’s errand. They cannot do it. But they’re going to hold it off as long as possible.” The “history” Clinton says China is trying to stop is the U.S. foreign policy of expansionism. She may not know it, but her statement gives away the true attitude of U.S. leaders towards China.
What this is, is an escalation in the war of words between China and the U.S. It’s also interesting that these statements were made before (by Clinton) and right after (by the Chinese) the U.S. and China signed an agreement to work together.
The Chinese are probably regretting signing the agreement, now that they know the true attitude of U.S. officials.
“I am writing to comment on the position taken by Alastair Campbell during his evidence to you … when he stated that the purpose of the dossier was not to make a case for war; I and those involved in its production saw it exactly as that, and that was the direction we were given.”-Major General Michael Laurie, British military intelligence official
General Laurie says that Campell, and then U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, lied to the Chilcot Inquiry (Iraq war inquiry) when they testified that their Iraq dossier was not a case for war. Laurie says he and other intelligence officials were directed to specifically make the Iraq dossier a case for war against Iraq.
Laurie says that Air Marshal Joe French, a Blair administration official, continued to pressure intelligence officials to produce a report that would justify war with Iraq. He says Air Marshal French was getting frustrated by lack of evidence to justify war: “We could find no evidence of planes, missiles or equipment that related to WMD, generally concluding that they must have been dismantled, buried or taken abroad. There has probably never been a greater detailed scrutiny of every piece of ground in any country.”
At the beginning of 2011 a lawsuit was filed against Jimmy Carter, by Israelis upset by the facts in his book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid”. They wanted $5 million in damages.
They claimed that Carter’s facts were false, but, according to some reports, as of May 5 they have dropped their claims. I wounder if they realized Carter’s book is factual regarding Israel’s brutality towards Palestinians?
New York Times reporting that former Blackwater founder, Erik Prince, has set up a mercenary force in U.A.E. The force is mainly made up of Colombians, but includes South Africans, Germans, British and U.S. citizens.
United States officials say if the mercenary group does not have U.S. approval then the U.S. citizens involved could face criminal charges.
Reports say United Arab Emirates is using the mercenary force to build up its own military, in preparation for possible war with Iran.
International Monetary Fund boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was arrested just after he boarded an Air France flight at John F. Kennedy airport. He’s accused of assaulting a hotel maid.
Is it coincidence that Kahn was going to run against French President Sarkozy in next year’s French elections? Sarkozy is the puppet of the Untied States, the Bush Jr administration helped him become President of France.
These charges also sound very similar to the charges brought against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.