Palau wants Uighurs. Willing to take them for $12 million each.

U.S. Money May Have Swayed Palau to Take Uighur Gitmo Detainees

COMMENT: "You Reckon?"

Two U.S. officials reportedly said that the U.S. was prepared to give Palau up to $200 million in development, budget support and other assistance in return for accepting the Uighurs and as part of a mutual defense and cooperation treaty that is due to be renegotiated this year.

FOXNews.com
Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Palau says its decision to temporarily take the 17 Uighurs, or Chinese Muslims, being held at the Guantanamo Bay prison was a "humanitarian gesture."

But the South Pacific island may have been motivated more by 200 million other reasons.

Two U.S. officials told the Associated Press that the U.S. was prepared to give Palau up to $200 million in return for accepting the Uighurs and as part of a mutual defense and cooperation treaty that is due to be renegotiated this year.

Figures on Palau's federal budget weren't immediately available, but if it is close to its size in 1999, when it was $71 million, the deal with the U.S. would in effect more than double the nation's spending and make it the fastest growing economy in the world.

In announcing the decision, Palau President Johnson Toribiong sounded as if the U.S. was doing his country a favor by sending the detainees there.

"I am honored and proud that the United States has asked Palau to assist with such a critical task," he said in a press release. "This is but a small thing we can do to thank our best friend and ally for all it has done of Palau."

But the move has riled some lawmakers.

"The Obama administration has still failed to present a credible plan for closing Guantanamo Bay by its self-imposed deadline, but paying $12 million per-head to send trained terrorists to an island paradise hardly seems like a good one," said Rep. Pete, Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.

"There are many questions the administration must answer including what guarantees it has that the Uighurs will stay in Palau once freed and what plans are in place to keep them from linking up with the radical-jihaddist separatists operating a short distance away in Indonesia and on the Filipino island of Mindanao?

"Without solid answers to these questions, American is left with the first of many bad solutions to a problem solely of the administration's creation."

The 17 Uighurs are members of a Muslim group from China that received weapons training in Afghanistan so it could fight the Chinese government, according to U.S. officials. If they were sent back to China, U.S. officials worry they could face torture.

But the U.S. government has struggled to identify countries willing to accept the Uighurs. Now the Uighurs will join a population of nearly 20,000 and enjoy gorgeous weather in Palau where the average temperature is 81.6 degree.

The tiny nation, which has a GDP of nearly $170 million, relies heavily on tourism for revenues. More than 79,000 tourists visited last year and they spent $111.9 million in 2007.

Palau was once a trusteeship administered by the U.S. but it became independent in October 1994. The U.S. and Palau then entered into a Compact of Free Association, which a senior State Department official said plays no role in "any other discussions we might be having with the government of Palau."

Palauan citizens can travel to the U.S. without a visa and seek employment or education. It is unclear whether the Uighurs would enjoy the same perks once they are released.

The State Department did not return a call seeking comment, and no one in the Palauan government could be reached.

FOX News' Mike Levine and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Pignuts (thin shelled with very bitter nuts)

Young pignut hickories ready to go forth and multiply.

HatTip: Bobal, aka al-bob and of recent, Bard-I-Ho

Definitions of 'bitter pignut'

1. (noun) bitternut, bitternut hickory, bitter hickory, bitter pignut, swamp hickory, Carya cordiformis
hickory of the eastern United States having a leaves with 7 or 9 leaflets and thin-shelled very bitter nuts.

John Kerry, chairman of the Senate foreign relations, tells Financial Times, Iran has right to uranium enrichment.

Right on cue, Kerry throws his weight behind the Obama opening to Iran. At a minimum Iran will be building nuclear power plants. Too bad the Democrats are not as enthusiastic for nuclear power plants in the US.

_______________

Senator opens Iran nuclear debate
By Daniel Dombey in Washington Financial Times
Published: June 10 2009 23:33 | Last updated: June 10 2009 23:33

One of the most senior Democrats in Washington has dismissed a key element in the west’s long standing strategy on Iran’s nuclear programme as “ridiculous”. His comments throw open the debate about how far the US and its partners should go in seeking a compromise with Tehran after on Friday’s presidential election.

John Kerry, chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee and the Democrats’ 2004 presidential nominee, told the Financial Times in an interview that Iran had a right to uranium enrichment – a process that can produce both nuclear fuel and weapons grade material.

The US and the world’s other big powers have repeatedly demanded that Tehran suspend enrichment – a policy pioneered by the former Bush administration that has since been given the force of international law by successive United Nations Security Council resolutions.

“The Bush administration [argument of] no enrichment was ridiculous . . . because it seemed so unreasonable to people,” said Mr Kerry, citing Iran’s rights as a signatory of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. “It was bombastic diplomacy. It was wasted energy. It sort of hardened the lines, if you will,” he added. “They have a right to peaceful nuclear power and to enrichment in that purpose.”

His comments come as Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, Iran’s president, faces off against Mir-Hossein Moussavi, his main challenger in an increasingly intense re-election battle, with the first round of voting taking place on Friday. They also come amid increasing nervousness in Israel about the US stance on Tehran, in light of a series of warnings by Obama administration officials against an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, which Washington believes would be counterproductive.

Enrichment – championed by Mr Ahmadi-Nejad, but supported by almost all of Iran’s political class, with wide popular backing – is at the heart of the Iranian nuclear dispute.

Although the UN Security Council resolutions demanding Iran suspend enrichment date back to March 2006, Tehran has systematically accelerated its nuclear programme, producing 1.3 tonnes of low enriched uranium hexaflouride – more than enough, if further processed, for one nuclear device.

Mr Kerry argues that in the wake of the former Bush administration’s failure to enforce the “red lines” it set Iran, Barack Obama needs to build an international coalition around an enforceable demand that at the minimum would provide more information about the nature of Iran’s programme.

He added that he had sent Mr Obama his suggestions in a memo.

The president himself, who Mr Kerry helped rise to national prominence, has steered clear of specific statements favoured by former president George W. Bush over whether Iran should cease all enrichment. Instead he has stressed his goal of ensuring Tehran does not become a nuclear weapon state and called for negotiations, which Washington hopes will begin once the Iranian elections have concluded.

“We are willing to have direct negotiations with the Iranians . . . without preconditions,” Mr Obama said at the weekend, arguing Tehran needed to give the world confidence it was not seeking nuclear weapons.

Joke of the day: Pay as you Go.

It is a good thing that the US Press are unethical cowards and the US Public is to put it mildly, stupid. Will they buy this bullshit? Probably, but let me give the press a little hint. We have had pay as you go for many years. It is called the Social Security System. 

There has never been any money in social security. It has been financed by a regressive flat tax on employers and employees. That has been possible, because the country was rich enough to afford it, had a work ethic and had a credit rating to sustain it.

Pay as you go in social security mean that you actually had to work. Will health care be dependent on your working? Of course not. Pay as you go social security was work based not need based.

That will not be true under BO.

_________________

Free health care for all. Minorities lining up wish lists.

Minority lawmakers want bill to close health gaps
By BEN EVANS –AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — Black, Latino and Asian lawmakers warned Democratic leaders that any health care overhaul that ignores health gaps between whites and minorities will face stiff opposition.
The lawmakers said they would be hard-pressed to support a bill without a new program providing access to health care for all Americans.

"The public health option has to be there," Rep. Mike Honda, a California Democrat who chairs the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, said at a news conference. "If we don't have a public option, there's no discussion."
Republicans are resisting a government health insurance program that would compete with private insurance companies, arguing that the companies would be put at a competitive disadvantage.

Members of the Asian caucus, along with the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said they plan to introduce legislation this week that includes their wish list for broadening health care overhaul beyond various plans floated in the House and Senate. The three minority caucuses have a total of 91 members, most of them Democrats and enough to help shape the final legislation.

Citing federal research showing higher rates of cancer, diabetes, heart disease and infant mortality among minorities, they said they would seek more funds for community health centers that provide care in poor neighborhoods.

The lawmakers also called for expanding a National Institutes of Health center that focuses on minority health concerns, works to improve work force diversity in the medical industry and collects more data to better track disparities in health care.

They said the costs of reaching into low-income, minority communities to improve upfront health care would be more than offset in the long run by preventing expensive procedures and hospital stays.

"Believe me, a comprehensive health care reform bill without the aspects that we're discussing today will be set for failure," said Rep. Nydia Velazquez, a New York Democrat who chairs the Hispanic caucus.

Later, at a discussion of minority health issues at the White House, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the Obama administration is committed to addressing the "alarming disparity in the delivery of quality health care."

Doing so, Sebelius told officials, is critical to lowering health care costs.

Sebelius noted that 75 percent of the nation's $2.2 trillion health care expenses go toward treating chronic diseases, referring to far higher rates of such diseases among minorities. She said the rising rates of HIV/AIDS among African-Americans is among "the most troubling" developments in U.S. health care.

"Minority Americans not only are more likely to be uninsured, so they don't have preventative care, don't have early intervention, but are less likely to have quality care when they come to seek the care that they need," she said.

The White House issued a summary report on minority health care showing that African-Americans are seven times more likely as whites to have HIV/AIDS, that blacks and Hispanics have diabetes rates nearly twice as high as whites, and that black men are 50 percent more likely than whites to have prostate cancer.

The report said more than one in three Hispanics and American Indians, and about one in five African-Americans, are uninsured. That compares to one in eight whites lacking coverage.

While the Michelle and Barack dazzle the press, 2 million lose jobs and one million lose their home.

"There's some who, despite all evidence to the contrary, still don't believe in the necessity and promise of this recovery act," he said. "Tell that to the Americans who received that unexpected call saying to come back to work."

Now that is compassion with change.

Obama's polling numbers are artificially held up by the world's largest Public Relations firm ever, the consolidated, amalgamated idolatrous US press.

I knew we were in the valley of deep dung when Baracko Boy took his shark skin suit for the first strut through Air Force One. "It's pretty nice," he told House Democrats in an after-dinner speech during the first days uptown. Sures beats shucking the Chrysler 300 in Chi.

"Hey man what's the sco?"

Well not too good, thanks for asking. $787 large spent and no one is counting. BO says, "good news" that it only took $135 billion obligated so far and that has saved or created "at least 150,000 jobs." Maybe.

I been looking at the man's face lately. It aint too good. Up tight and taut. This may be a short performance.

_______________________________ 

Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Obama to hurry recovery effort amid rising doubt

Jon Ward Washington Time

President Obama on Monday pushed to reinvigorate his $787 billion economic-stimulus program, promising to accelerate efforts to get money out the door, while dealing with critics who said some of his claims to create or preserve jobs have been exaggerated.

Mr. Obama said he was "not satisfied" with the results of the stimulus program so far, though he highlighted some of the achievements he said were the result of the massive spending bill, which he signed into law in mid-February.

He said it was "good news" that $135 billion obligated so far has saved or created "at least 150,000 jobs."

But with about 2 million jobs disappearing since the bill was enacted, White House officials conceded that their estimates of jobs "saved or created" were at best only blunting the pace of overall losses.

"Less bad is not good enough," said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

A national poll released Monday showed that the public was losing confidence in Mr. Obama's handling of the economy. But the White House denied that Mr. Obama's effort to speed up the stimulus spending was a response to either growing anxiety about the program or its lackluster early performance.

Approval of Mr. Obama's handling of the economy has dropped from 59 percent in February to 55 percent, the USA Today-Gallup poll showed. More significantly, disapproval on the issue has gone up 12 percentage points to 42 percent.

The president, however, remains more popular than either of his two immediate predecessors at this point in his presidency, with a 67 percent overall approval rating.

Still, critics accused the White House with playing with numbers to make the stimulus appear more effective than it's been.

"The Obama administration is continuing to fabricate job-creation projections related to the stimulus," said Tony Fratto, a former George W. Bush administration official.

"The Bureau of Labor Statistics - the only government agency counting jobs - cannot tell you how many Americans are working today. They cannot tell you how many Americans were working a month ago. And they cannot even tell you how many Americans, within 50,000, were at work when the stimulus was passed by Congress," Mr. Fratto said. "Without that information, there is no credible estimate for jobs 'created or saved.' "

Keith Hall, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, told Congress last week that it is "a very difficult thing for anybody to substantiate" the Obama administration's projections of jobs "saved or created."

Jared Bernstein, an adviser to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., called the Obama's team measurement "an estimate of how many jobs you believe you created."

The president's event at the White House on Monday, as he pivoted back to domestic policy after a trip to the Middle East and Europe, was intended to highlight "10 new major projects that will define the next three months," the White House said.

The projects include work at 107 national parks, 98 airports and 1,500 highway locations, and hiring or retaining 5,000 police officers - work designed to save or create 600,000 jobs. Mr. Obama said that all those jobs will be created or retained "over the next 100 days."

But 125,000 of those jobs - nearly 25 percent - are summer positions for youth, not full-time permanent employment, according to the White House.

Mr. Obama pledged in February that, all told, the stimulus package would save between 3 million and 4 million jobs.

Mr. Bernstein defended the administration's formula for its job numbers.

"This is an absolute, tried-and-true economic methodology," he said during a briefing with reporters at the White House. "There is simply no other way to make this kind of estimate."

But Republicans and conservative groups hammered the president, sensing a political opening.

"Today's announcement is an acknowledgment that the Democrats' trillion-dollar stimulus is not working, and the American people know it," said House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican.

The White House said its calculations project that every $92,000 of government spending creates one "job-year."

A May 11 report states that about two-thirds of that "job-year" is a direct or indirect benefit, such as a state worker being retained and not fired because of federal dollars being disbursed to state governments.

About one-third of each "job-year" is an "induced effect," the White House said, where tax cuts for consumers can create demand for products and allow businesses to hire or retain employees because of that demand.

Republicans pointed to the White House prediction in January that the unemployment rate would stay about 8 percent if Congress passed the stimulus package. The unemployment rate has risen to 9.4 percent.

Mr. Bernstein said that in January they had not yet learned of a massive 6 percent contraction in gross domestic product during the fourth quarter of 2008.

"At the time, our forecast seemed reasonable. Now, looking back, it was clearly too optimistic," he said.

The White House also faces questions over whether the massive spending program is still needed to stimulate an economy that administration analysts say is already beginning to show signs of recovery. Other analysts, however, warn that the stock market's recent gains may be a "bear rally," signaling another downturn ahead.

Some Republican lawmakers say they want to stop all $787 billion from being spent if the economy is on the mend, using the money instead to reduce federal debt and deficit levels.

The national debt is more than $11 trillion, and the deficit for the current fiscal year is projected by the Congressional Budget Office to be almost $1 trillion. The country's debtors are increasingly anxious about the ability of the U.S. government to pay its debt with interest, and bond buyers have been driving up yields on long-term notes, making it more expensive for the Treasury to raise money.

Meeting with his Cabinet, the president on Monday gave a mixed review of the economy so far, stating that May job losses of 345,000 announced Friday were not as bad as expected but "still far too many." He also said that the United States is "still in the middle of a very deep recession, which is going to take a considerable amount of time to pull out of."

It was a different message from the one Mr. Obama offered at the end of May, when he cited the stock market's stabilization and other indicators as evidence that the economy had "stepped back from the brink."

Mr. Obama hit back at his critics Monday.

"There's some who, despite all evidence to the contrary, still don't believe in the necessity and promise of this recovery act," he said. "Tell that to the Americans who received that unexpected call saying to come back to work."

China demands computer makers install internet censoring software. Not our problem.

I have been back and forth on this, but have come to the conclusion that this is simply none of our business and not our problem. 

The US government restricts all sorts of things US manufacturers can and cannot do. It demands what ingredients can and cannot go into products that we eat, sleep in and drive.

What the Chinese do in their country is something that is for the Chinese to endure, accept or reject.

If the US wants to stop prohibitions on the internet, it can start by lifting the ban on online gambling.

______________

New China Web-Filtering Rules Still Murky

Researchers Caution 'Green Dam' Censorship Could Extend Beyond Pornographic Sites


By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER and BEN WORTHEN, Wall Street Journal

Computer makers and researchers are seeking answers to questions about Internet filtering software that the Chinese government is requiring PC manufacturers to ship with computers sold in the country beginning next month.

The software -- dubbed "Green Dam-Youth Escort" -- could give government censors additional control over the information that Chinese Internet users see online.

Though the company that makes Green Dam, China-based Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co., has said it is designed to let parents block access to Web content inappropriate for children, Internet freedom advocates have questioned whether it could be used to block politically sensitive sites, given China's history of censoring Web content.

The software works similarly to models long used by companies that sell security and parental-control software. Such programs come with a "black list" of Web sites that have previously been categorized as pornographic, violent, or containing hate speech, as well as words or combinations of words that appear on such sites. Each time a user tries to visit a Web site the address is checked against the list. When a Web site is blocked, a message will appear saying it contains prohibited content.

Jinhui founder Bryan Zhang says the company compiles the list of sites to be blocked, which he says is limited to pornography. The software also could be used to block other types of content and collect private data -- but he says the company had no reason to do so.

Seth Young, spokesman for the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard, said initial testing indicated that the system only blocked pornography and not politically sensitive Web sites. However, he cautioned that the list of blocked sites could be changed in the future.

Such software is usually programmed to receive updates via the Web to the black list at regular intervals. The computer owner doesn't need to do anything to load these updates, which are delivered directly from the software publisher to the computer.

An important question for computer manufacturers -- facing a July 1 deadline to comply with the order -- is whether installation of the software is mandatory. The order from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology mandating the software left vague whether it had to be pre-installed on a computer or simply distributed on a CD with the computer.

The agency also didn't specify what penalty companies might face if they don't comply.

It also remains unclear whether the software can be turned off, or circumvented. Mr. Zhang said the software could be uninstalled, but requires a password to do so in order to make it difficult for children to uninstall it themselves. He also said blocked sites can be accessed either with a password set by the software's administrator, or by adding addresses to a "white list" of allowed sites. Similarly, addresses can be added to the black list on the user's hard drive.

The two largest U.S. PC makers, Hewlett-Packard Co., and Dell Inc., said they were evaluating the software. A spokesman for Dell said the company is still "working to understand the application."

Last year, researchers discovered that a Chinese version of eBay Inc.'s Skype Internet calling software contained the ability to block politically sensitive words in instant messaging chats, and to keep a record of the use of such words.

—Loretta Chao and Amy Schatz contributed to this article.

Write to Geoffrey A. Fowler at geoffrey.fowler@wsj.com and Ben Worthen at ben.worthen@wsj.com

The surplus economies of China, Japan, and Germany to be shattered?

Merkel's inflationary fretting may wake the bears from hibernation

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph

It is lonely in the diminishing camp of bears, says Ambrose Evans-Pritchard.


Published: 10:11PM BST 06 Jun 2009

Those of us who still question whether the world has purged its toxins are reduced to the same tiny band of moaning Druids from early 2007, when we shook our heads in disbelief as the carry trade swept Iceland to fresh madness and bankers laughed off sub-prime rot at Bear Stearns.

We learned then to thicken our skins with walnut juice, lie down in dark rooms, and dissent from Goldman Sachs. Such seclusion is called for once again as Goldman replays its BRIC anthem and raises its oil forecast to $85 a barrel this year, betting that the world will roar back on a tidal wave of liquidity.

It is perhaps unkind to mention that Goldman issued a $200 call at the top of the speculative frenzy last year, just before oil crashed, but they have broad shoulders.

Note that Total's Jean-Jacques Mosconi said markets are awash with so much crude that almost 100m barrels (a near record) are stored on tankers at sea. Note too that May electricity use fell 10pc in China's industrial hub of Guangdong from a year earlier. This is revealing, given that China's fiscal boost has reached peak and will fade later this year.

For guidance on where we are in this long-drawn saga, I look to Berkeley's Barry Eichengreen, author of the Great Depression classic Golden Fetters – which avoids the error of viewing the 1930s through a US prism.

He has crunched the latest data with Trinity College Dublin's Kevin O'Rourke for VoxEU, concluding that the global rupture over the last nine months has been more violent than in the early slump. This is logical. Global debt leverage is much greater this time.

The fall in industrial output has been roughly equal to the 1929-1930 stage for Germany and the Anglo-Saxons, but worse for Japan, France, Italy, and Eastern Europe. The collapse in world trade has been swifter: the global equity crash has been twice as bad. "It's a depression alright. The good news is that the policy response is very different. The question now is whether that response will work," they said.

The elastic was bound to snap back, just as it did in the bear rally of early 1931. Whether the underlying economy has begun to heal is another matter. World Bank chief economist Justin Yifu Lin said capacity utilization is running at an historic low of 50pc-60pc. Companies will have to fire a lot of workers. This is where the danger lies, and why he fears that deflation is creeping up on us.

Trade data from Asia are flashing warning signals again. Korea's exports were down 28.3pc in May, reversing the April rebound. Malaysia has slipped to -26pc, and India has touched a new low of -33pc.

US freight data is getting worse, not better. The Association of American Railroads said traffic was down 22pc in the third week of May from a year earlier. Canadian freight was down 34pc.

The American Trucking Association (ATA) said it saw fresh drops of 4.5pc in March and a further 2.2pc in April. Tonnage is down 13pc over 12 months. Bob Costello, the ATA's chief economist, said companies have not cut inventories fast enough to keep pace with declining sales. The contraction in truck volume has "accelerated".

Yes, the Baltic Dry Index for bulk shipping of resources has quadrupled since January, but this reflects China's bid to stockpile metals while prices are low.

Stephen Roach, Morgan Stanley's Far East chief, fears an "Asian Relapse", saying the region is prisoner to its fatal dependency on exports to the West. The export share of GDP has risen from 36pc to 47pc across developing Asia over the last decade.

"China's incipient rebound relies on a time-worn stimulus formula: upping the ante on infrastructure spending in anticipation of an eventual rebound of global demand," he said. The strategy cannot work this time because Americans have exhausted their credit, and their desire to borrow. Consumption will fall from its peak of 72pc of GDP to the "pre-bubble norm" of 67pc, if not more.

David Rosenberg from Gluskins Sheff expects Americans to retrench ferociously as 78m baby boomers face the looming threat of penury in old age. "The big story is that the personal savings rate hit a 15-year high of 5.7pc in April. I believe it could test the post-War peak of 15pc. Too many pundits are still living in the old paradigm of Americans shopping till they drop," he said.

If he is right, this will shatter the surplus economies of China, Japan, and Germany, unless they adjust fast to the new world order. Germany does not even seem to understand the problem it faces. Chancellor Angela Merkel lashed out last week at quantitative easing by the Fed, the Bank of England, and the European Central Bank, repeating the silly mantra that this will set off an inflationary storm.

How can it do so when the velocity of circulation has collapsed, and unemployment is rising everywhere? The Fed's "monetary multiplier" ended last week at 0.867, half its average of 1.7 over the last decade. The credit mechanism is still broken. This is what happened in Japan in its Lost Decade.

The ECB says the eurozone economy will contract until mid-2010, at best. Germany's trade association (Wirtschaftsverbände) warned Mrs Merkel last week that the credit drought threatens to become "life-threatening by the summer at the latest".

The list of countries in deflation is growing every month: Ireland (-3.5), Thailand (-3.3), China (-1.5), Switzerland (-1), Spain (-0.8), the US (-0.7), Singapore (-0.7), Taiwan (-0.5), Belgium (-0.4), Japan (-0.1), Sweden (-0.1), Germany (0).

Yet markets seem to think otherwise, and this has its own awful consequences. Inflation fears have driven 10-year US Treasury yields to 3.86pc, a full point above levels in March when the Fed intervened to force rates down. US mortgage rates have jumped to 5.29pc. Gilts have reached 3.92pc, and French 10-year bonds are at 4.05pc.

This bond revolt is enough to bring any global recovery to a shuddering halt. The irony is that those fretting loudest about inflation may themselves tip us into outright deflation, with all the perils of a debt compound trap. It is Angela Merkel who plays with fire.