News and views from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada
Welcome To Alberta West Online News
Centered on the Caroline area of West Central Alberta, Canada, this news service is updated daily with reports of community events, area news and wider political issues.
The United States slapped sanctions on Venezuela’s state oil giant PDVSA on 25 May 2011 in a more aggressive effort to disrupt Iran’s fuel supplies. The banner says: "Venezuela now belongs to all".
by Nil Nikandrov Journalist and political analyst whose columns regularly feature in the Russian-based online magazine Strategic Culture Foundation.
There is a growing impression that Venezuela with its oil riches is the next country on the US hit list. Latin America analyst Nil Nikandrov opines that one would have to be a hopeless idealist to believe that - after US crusades swept across Asian and African oil-producing countries - the Venezuelan oil deposits so far remaining beyond the US control would somehow evade Washington’s appetite. Article posted here
Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley; Author, 'Aftershock'
Editor: The article below outlines one small step towards Social Credit
"I am concerned about the fact that the recovery that we're on is not producing jobs as fast as I want it to happen," President Obama said Tuesday, amid the flood of bad economic news, including last Friday's alarming jobs report.
Does this mean we're about to see a bold package of ideas from the White House for spurring growth of jobs and wages? Sadly, it doesn't seem so.
Obama says he's interested in exploring with Republicans extending some of the measures that were part of that tax-cut package "to make sure that we get this recovery up and running in a robust way."
Accordingly, the White House is mulling a temporary cut in the payroll taxes businesses pay on wages. White House advisors figure this may appeal to Republican lawmakers who have been discussing the same idea. It would, in essence, match the 2 percent reduction in employee contributions to payroll taxes this year, enacted as part of the deal to extend the Bush tax cuts.
Other ideas under consideration at the White House include a corporate tax cut, accompanied by the closing of some corporate tax loopholes.
Can we get real for a moment? Businesses don't need more financial incentives. They're already sitting on a vast cash horde estimated to be upwards of $1.6 trillion. Besides, large and middle-sized companies are having no difficulty getting loans at bargain-basement rates, courtesy of the Fed.
In consequence, businesses are already spending as much as they can justify economically. Almost two-thirds of the measly growth in the economy so far this year has come from businesses rebuilding their inventories. But without more consumer spending, there's they won't spend more. A robust economy can't be built on inventory replacements.
The problem isn't on the supply side. It's on the demand side. Businesses are reluctant to spend more and create more jobs because there aren't enough consumers out there able and willing to buy what businesses have to sell. Full article published here
June 9, 2011: Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope are witnessing the unprecedented transition of a supernova to a supernova remnant, where light from an exploding star in a neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, reached Earth in February 1987. Named Supernova 1987A, it was the closest supernova explosion witnessed in almost 400 years. The supernova's close proximity to Earth has allowed astronomers to study it in detail as it evolves. Now, the supernova debris, which has faded over the years, is brightening. This means that a different power source has begun to light the debris. The debris of SN 1987A is beginning to impact the surrounding ring, creating powerful shock waves that generate X-rays observed with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Those X-rays are illuminating the supernova debris and shock heating is making it glow in visible light. The results are being reported in today's issue of the journal Nature by a team including Robert Kirshner of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), who leads a long-term study of SN 1987A with Hubble. Since its launch in 1990, the Hubble telescope has provided a continuous record of the changes in SN 1987A. Article source here
opednews.com editor's note: This article was written by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts in 2008. It was published in the July 2008 issue of Hustler Magazine, and is based entirely on documented sources and on interviews with the survivors. Today marks 44 years since this heinous war crime was not only committed but has been covered up -- by all succeeding administrations and mainstream media. It is a "must read" for those concerned about an attack on America; the needless slaughter of American citizens.
June 8, 1967 -- the fourth day of the Six Day War between Israel and Egypt, Syria and Jordan -- was a beautiful day in the Mediterranean. The USS Liberty was in international waters off the coast of Egypt. Israeli aircraft had flown over the USS Liberty in the morning and had reported that the ship was American. The crew, in close proximity to the war zone, was reassured by the presence of Israeli aircraft. But at 2:00 p.m. sailors sunbathing on the deck saw fighter jets coming at them in attack formation. Red flashes from the wings of the fighters were followed by explosions, blood and death. A beautiful afternoon suddenly became a nightmare. Who was attacking the USS Liberty and why? The attack on the Liberty was an attack on America.
The Liberty was an intelligence ship. Its purpose was to monitor Soviet and Arab communications in order to warn both Israel and Washington should the Soviets enter the war on behalf of its Arab allies. The Liberty was armed only with four machine guns to repel boarders. Its request for a destroyer escort had been denied.
The assault on the Liberty is well documented. With no warning, the Liberty was attacked by successive waves of unmarked jets using cannon, rockets and napalm. The attacking jets jammed all of the US communications frequencies, an indication they knew the Liberty was an American ship.
The air attack failed to sink the Liberty. About 30 minutes into the attack three torpedo boats appeared flying the Star of David. The Israeli boats were not on a rescue mission. They attacked the Liberty with cannon, machine guns and torpedoes. One torpedo struck the Liberty mid-ship, instantly killing 25 Americans while flooding the lower decks. The Israeli torpedo boats destroyed the life rafts the Liberty launched when the crew prepared to abandon ship, sending the message there'd be no survivors.
At approximately 3:15 two French-built Israeli helicopters carrying armed Israeli troops appeared over the Liberty. Phil Tourney could see their faces only 50/60 feet away. He gave them the finger. Surviving crew members are convinced the Israelis were sent to board and kill all survivors.
The Israeli jets destroyed the Liberty's communication antennas. While under attack from the jets, crew members strung lines that permitted the ship to send a call for help. The USS Saratoga and the USS America launched fighters to drive off the attacking aircraft, but the rescue mission was aborted by direct orders from Washington.
When the Liberty notified the Sixth Fleet it was again under attack, this time from surface ships, the Fleet commander ordered the carriers America and Saratoga to launch fighters to destroy or drive off the attackers. The order was unencrypted and picked up by Israel, which immediately called off its attack. The torpedo boats and the hovering helicopters sped away. Israel quickly notified Washington that it had mistakenly attacked an American ship, and the US fighters were recalled a second time.
The USS Liberty suffered 70% casualties, with 34 killed and 174 wounded. Although the expensive state of the art ship was kept afloat by the heroic crew, it later proved unsalvageable and was sold as scrap. Read whole article here
The circumstances surrounding arrest of the wartime commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, General Ratko Mladić, seem puzzling. On May 26 he was captured in the house of a close relative with the same surname in a village north of Belgrade. Prima facie this means either that Mladić was entirely left to his own devices and had to seek shelter with people certain to be under police surveillance, or else that the Serbian authorities had been conniving in his hiding. The former is unlikely in view of the effectiveness of Mladić’s concealment after he finally went underground in 2002. The latter is even less likely in view of President Boris Tadić’s constant desire to please his mentors in Brussels and Washington and get Serbia a step closer to the ever-elusive EU membership.
According to our reliable sources in Belgrade, Mladić would not have been discovered had he not decided to give himself up in return for a substantial financial reward for his family. He is a very sick man and unlikely to live much longer. In addition to a chronic kidney ailment and high blood pressure, he has suffered several minor strokes over the past decade. Two years ago he was treated—under an assumed name—for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at a clinic in Belgrade. Aware that his wife Bosiljka and son Darko had been living in penury since the authorities stopped paying his pension in 2005, Mladić decided to offer the government a deal. The final settlement is well below the $10m previously offered for Mladić’s capture, but sufficient to enable his wife and son to live in comfort for many years to come. Article here
Gulf Arabs, the European Union, heads of state in Washington, Paris and London, the war chiefs of NATO – everyone was consulted on the assault against Libya, except Africans, whose latest peace plan was rejected out of hand. In the end, the opinions of the so-called Libyan “rebels” won’t count, either. “These rebels lost their legitimacy the second they decided to become the ground troops for a neocolonial invasion of North Africa.” As underlings, they’ll just take orders.
As far as the United States and Europe are concerned, Africans have nothing to say about what happens in Africa. South African President Jacob Zuma made a second trip to Libya this week, on behalf of the African Union, seeking a diplomatic end to NATO’s war against Mouammar Gaddafi’s government. Just as with a previous African Union peacekeeping mission, back in early April, Col. Gaddafi agreed to the peace plan. And just as before, the so-called rebels and their American and European bosses refused even to consider a cease fire. As has been obvious from the beginning of this “humanitarian” farce, the Great White Fathers of Europe and the “Wall Street mascot” from the United States, as Obama has been called, will be satisfied with nothing less than regime change in Libya – and to Hell with what Africans think! Article posted here
The U.S. 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed off the coast of Libya with a crew of twenty-two hundred Marines and sailors, trained for aviation and ground combat.
by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
After months of equivocations meant to mislead public opinion, it’s curtain time for the ground attack on Libya. While the U.S. and its allies try to make it look like a recent decision in response to the violence inflicted against civilians, this author exposes the hypocrisy behind this portrayal and shows that the ground operation in Libya started even before the enforcement of the UN no-fly zone. Furthermore, he unmasks the hypocrisy of putting a NATO face on an operation which is blatantly being led by the U.S. Full article posted here
For months, Bahraini and Saudi security forces targeted nonviolent protesters and activists wanting the repressive Al Khalifa monarchy replaced by constitutionally elected government, political freedom, and social justice, what Bahrainis never had and don't now.
Three previous articles discussed it, accessed through the following links:
Still functioning despite authorities terrorizing people brutally, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) provides regular updates on the ground, expressing great concern about King Hamad's ruthless:
"actions and arbitrary penalties against citizens who it believes participated or supported the peaceful protest movement in February and March, whereas, Bahraini authorities (unleashed) great violence (against them, resulting in) dozens of deaths, especially after" thuggish Saudi and Emirati forces also suppressed them.
On March 15, martial law was declared (the so-called State of National Safety), now lifted but nothing changed. Daily state terror continues unabated against all sectors of society, including opposition leaders, independent journalists, human rights and political activists, students, trade unionists, and other civil society sectors and institutions, targeting women and children as brutally as men. Continue reading here
Amnesty International article on this subject posted here
There are over 600 prison camps in the United States, all fully operational and ready to receive prisoners. They are all staffed and even surrounded by full-time guards, but they are all empty. These camps are to be operated by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) should Martial Law need to be implemented in the United States.
The 'Rex 84 Program' was established in this regard that if a mass exodus of illegal aliens crossed the Mexican/U.S. border, they would be quickly rounded up and detained in detention centers by FEMA. Rex 84 allowed many military bases to be closed down and to be turned into prisons.
Also, Operation Cable Splicer and Garden Plot are two sub programs which will be implemented once the Rex 84 program is initiated for its proper purpose.
Garden Plot is the program to control the population.
Cable Splicer is the program for an orderly takeover of the state and local governments by the federal government.
FEMA is the executive arm of the coming police state and thus will head up all operations. The Presidential Executive Orders already listed on the Federal Register also are part of the legal framework for this operation
The camps all have railroad facilities as well as roads leading to and from the detention facilities. Many also have an airport nearby.
The majority of the camps can house a population of 20,000 prisoners. Currently, the largest of these facilities is just outside of Fairbanks, Alaska.
The Alaskan facility is a massive mental health facility and can hold approximately 2 million people. United Truth Seekers
In the world of golden-collared manakins, a split second can be the difference between life and death. As a result, females look for a mate who displays supreme speed and agility in a blazingly fast courtship dance, according to new research.
"The females prefer the males that perform the elements of the dance faster and demonstrate better motor coordination," lead author Julia Barske, a graduate student and doctoral candidate in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a news release.
She and colleagues observed the little birds native to Panama, Colombia, and Costa Rica in the rain forest near Gamboa in Panama for three months, recording the dance with high-speed video and camera equipment.
"Our data suggest the courtship display is a proxy for survival capability," co-author Barney Schlinger, a professor and departmental chair of integrative biology and physiology and a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, said in the release.
"To survive in the wild, it's an advantage to have extra neuromuscular capability. Being faster can enable a golden-collared manakin to escape a predator."
During the courtship dance, several males gather together in a small area, and each jumps from small tree to small tree while making a fast, powerful, loud snapping sound with his wings, the researchers explain. He also does this wing-snap while perched. When the male lands on a perch, he rapidly turns to expose his feathers to the female.
It is "intense, physically elaborate, complex, accurate, fast behavior," Schlinger said.
The male performs these feats "not necessarily because he wants to, but because that's what the female rewards," he added. "If the female rewards a slightly faster behavior, then the males will get faster. We propose that elaborate, acrobatic courtship dances evolve because they reflect the motor skills and cardiovascular function of males."
The study is published online in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Article source here
A really interesting, insightful and inspiring conversation between Sons of Malcolm's Sukant Chandan and Libyan brother Faraj Jibreel on the evening of 02 June 2011 in the Libyan capital, Tripoli. Brother Faraj is a medical student, originally from the south of Libya, now residing in Salahudeen area in Tripoli, which has been incessantly and heavily bombarded by NATO. Information source here
"A Vote to Permit the Continuation of an Illegal War is a Vote Against the Constitution"
WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 2, 2011) -- Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today sent the following letter to colleagues encouraging them to support his legislation to end the war in Libya:
Dear Colleague:
You will be asked to vote on two resolutions; H.Con.Res. 51 and a resolution offered by Speaker Boehner, H.Res. 292, both of which address U.S. military involvement in Libya. While H.Res. 292 is not at odds with H.Con.Res.51, it is not a substitute for my resolution and does not have anywhere near the same impact. There are clear differences and it is imperative that members clearly understand them because a consequence of voting for one (H.Res. 292) and not the other (H.Con.Res. 51) is an endorsement of the illegal and unconstitutional action that has been taken by the White House.
How do we deal with the failure of a President to adhere to the Constitution? If Congress does not challenge a President’s dismissal of the clear meaning of Article 1, Section 8, then we will have tacitly endorsed a President’s violation of the Constitution and guaranteed the perpetuation of future constitutional transgressions. A mild rebuke alone of the usurpation of a constitutionally mandated war power is insufficient to defend the Constitution.
Though many of us may want to support our President, the President has ignored Congress’ assertion of the war power by failing to obey the War Powers Resolution. Congress fought for this power in 1973 when it passed the War Powers Resolution over a presidential veto. My resolution requires the President to abide by the statutory obligations of the War Powers Resolution by ending U.S. involvement in military operations in Libya.
Our loyalty to NATO and to our President, regardless of party affiliation, does not trump our loyalty to the United States Constitution.
Breaking news: the Benghazi-based Transitional National Council, referred to by the Libyan resistance as the `rats council` has been attacked and the dead include British, American and French citizens, according to reports reaching Mathaba
Libyan National Security has confirmed that last night free Libyan resistance attacked the headquarters of the so-called Transitional National Council in Benghazi.
The council is made up of known corrupt former government officials who defected to a coordinated French-British-American intelligence coup supporting an armed insurrection by bandits released from prisons in Benghazi.
Most of the members of the TNC are either fictitious or secret as they still have not been named after its formation announcement in February.
Many foreign mercenaries, tied to Al-Qaida groups in North Africa from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt but also European and American agents, have been gathered in Benghazi during the past few months, in violation of Libya's sovereignty and waging armed attacks against Libya's legitimate government.
In the attack by Libyan resistance to the NATO-led foreign occupation American, British and French citizens were all killed, showing that there is a heavy foreign involvement in the TNC.
Some of those killed were from the Blackwater mercenary company. Information source here
A new phase of the war is unfolding leading to a process of military escalation as well as the eventual landing of US-NATO commandos on Libya's shores.
An unprecedented deployment of naval power in the Mediterranean is occurring.
On June 1st, the members states of the Atlantic Alliance (NATO) meeting in Brussels decided to "renew the mission", namely extend the war on Libya, "for another 90 days to late September".
The USS George H W Bush supercarrier, the most advanced vessel in the US naval arsenal, together with its strike and carrier group has entered the Mediterranean, to join up with the Sixth Fleet in Naples.
Aircraft supercarrier USS George H W Bush (CVN77) is the World's largest naval vessel: with "four-and-a-half acres of space on its flight deck, making it capable of housing 90 jets and helicopters. It is home to 5,500 crew". Equipped with sophisticated electronic warfare systems, it is the World's largest "mobile military base" (Manlio Dinucci, "Boots on the Ground": Sarkozy and Cameron Prepare to Land in Libya, Global Research, May 31, 2011).
The USS George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group was sent on its "maiden voyage" to the Sixth Fleet area of naval operations, namely the Mediterranean. It was "certified ready for combat operations" a month before the onset of the war on Libya. USS George H.W. Bush Strike Group Certified Combat Ready, February 21, 2011). Article posted here
Although the financial press speculates about a downgrade of the US government's credit rating and default if political impasse prevents the debt ceiling from being raised in time, I doubt anyone really believes that the debt ceiling will not be raised. It is just all a part of the political theater of the next couple of months.
Republicans will blame the budget deficit and accumulated national debt on Medicare and Social Security. Wall Street sees billions of profits in privatizing either, and debt rating agencies will oblige their Wall Street paymasters by opining from time to time that US Treasury bonds might be downgraded unless "entitlements can be addressed and the deficit brought under control."
Democrats will say that the budget deficit cannot be addressed without an increase in tax revenues, especially from the rich whose incomes have exploded upward while their tax rates have declined.
All the while the pressure of an approaching deadline for default will be used to reshape the US social contract, most likely in the further interest of the rich.
However, regardless of whether the debt ceiling is raised, the US government is not going to go out of business. Why does anyone think that the President, who does not obey the War Powers Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, US and international laws against torture, or any of the laws and procedures that guard civil liberty, is going to feel compelled to obey the debt ceiling?
As long as the US is at war, the American President is a Caesar. He is above the law. The US Justice (sic) Department has ruled this, and Congress and the Courts have accepted it. Article here
Opposition protesters in Spain keep tents erected in main squares throughout the country's major cities in defiance of a government warning.
The protesters have set up a large encampment stretching across Madrid's central Puerta del Sol plaza and vowed to continue their sit-in until their demands regarding unemployment, corruption and the government's austerity measures are met. In Barcelona, more than 1,000 protesters vowed to remain in the Plaza Catalunya square in a vote late on Wednesday. They also pledged to find other ways to ensure that the spirit of the nationwide movement continues. The decision comes despite a government warning that activists cannot continue their protests. "It cannot be that some citizens cut off the rights of others," Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told Cadena Ser radio, adding that police action would be proportionate to avoid making things worse. The protests, which began on May 15 and soon spread to city squares nationwide, have, at times, turned violent. The massive protests came after the government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero introduced a slew of drastic austerity measures. These include the cutting of civil servant wages among other things as part of the government's plans to curb the budget deficit from 11 percent a year earlier to within three percent of the GDP by 2013, a limit set by the European Union.
Spain's M-15 movement has as well inspired other European countries, including France and Greece, where people have been protesting austerity measures. Article source here
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) agreed to extend its mission in Libya for another 90 days, after its bombings have already claimed 718 civilian lives and left over 4 000 injured. Article here
Statement by the NATO Secretary General on the extension of the mission in Libya
NATO and partners have just decided to extend our mission for Libya for another 90 days.
This decision sends a clear message to the Qadhafi regime: We are determined to continue our operation to protect the people of Libya. We will sustain our efforts to fulfil the United Nations mandate. We will keep up the pressure to see it through.
Our decision also sends a clear message to the people of Libya: NATO, our partners, the whole international community, stand with you. We stand united to make sure that you can shape your own future. And that day is getting closer.
Editor: Bombs and democracy apparently go hand-in-hand Source here
The U.S. economy continues to stagnate. It's growing at the rate of 1.8 percent, which is barely growing at all. Consumer spending is down. Home prices are down. Jobs and wages are going nowhere.
It's vital that we understand the truth about the American economy.
How did we go from the Great Depression to 30 years of Great Prosperity? And from there, to 30 years of stagnant incomes and widening inequality, culminating in the Great Recession? And from the Great Recession into such an anemic recovery? Full article here
It is no secret that China dominates the production of rare earth elements. Over 95 percent of world production comes from China, and over the last few years the nation has tightened its control over the production and export of the 17 elements. Further controls over the industry have come out of the last few weeks. Included in these developments is a major shake up, the establishment of a rare earth exchange in Baotou, Inner Mongolia.
Editor: This is important news because rare earth elements are essential ingredients used across the whole range of modern technology products. The Chinese strategy of creating export controls on these in a market where they have a virtual monopoly has the potential of creating dangerous tensions between China and the US in particular. Read the whole article here
