The Romanian government resigned on Monday, in the wake of mass protests against its austerity measures over the past three weeks. - Prime Minister Emil Boc explained his resignation in a televised cabinet meeting by saying he wanted to diffuse social tensions without compromising his unpopular austerity measures. “I took this decision to release the tension in the country's political and social situation, but also in order not to lose what Romanians have won.” [...] The IMF is confident that Boc’s austerity program will be continued after his resignation. The IMF representative in Bucharest, Jeffrey Franks, told Reuters that he did not expect that the IMF agreement would be affected by the change in government. Crucial to Frank’s conviction is the fact that all of the country’s opposition parties and trade unions support in principle the deals struck with the IMF. This is also the reason why popular outrage over the harsh austerity measures found no outlet for a long time. The unions have betrayed every labour dispute in recent years, organising sporadic toothless protests aimed at letting off steam.

A default by Greece would not only reverberate throughout Europe but could have a major impact on American banks and financial institutions which, while not heavily involved in direct loans, face large payouts on credit default swaps if bankruptcy is declared. - Leaders of the political parties comprising the Greek coalition government will meet the premier, Lucas Papademos, later today to give him their reply to demands for sweeping austerity measures in return for a further €130 billion in bailout loans. If agreement to the demands, imposed by the so-called troika—the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund—is not forthcoming, Greece could default on its loans as early as next month.

As tensions between the US and Iran heat up, author Michael T. Winter believes the main reason behind America’s harsh stance is Tehran’s move to seek an alternative to the dollar as an oil currency. - Economic sanctions, spearheaded by the US and, less willingly, the EU could have a disastrous effect on both of their respective economies. If Iran cannot sell their oil to Europe, there are plenty of customers waiting in the wings, and if they come bearing not petrodollars, but gold and sovereign currencies, then all the better for Iran. These sanctions, if enforced, will in effect place a serious dent in the power of the petrodollar. Any rhetoric regarding Iran’s nuclear program and the insistence on crippling it is nothing more than a US attempt to force regime change for one more receptive to maintaining the hegemony of the petrodollar.

Romney told CNN’s Soledad O’Brien during a morning interview after his Florida primary win that his focus is on the middle class — and not on the “very poor.”

“I’m in this race because I care about Americans. I’m not concerned about the very poor — we have a safety net there,” he said. “If it needs repair, I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich — they’re doing just fine. I’m concerned about the very heart of America, the 90-95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling.”

O’Brien jumped in, asking him to clarify his statement that he’s not concerned with the very poor. “I think there are lots of very poor Americans who are struggling who would say, ‘That sounds odd,’” she said.

“Well, you had to finish the sentence, Soledad,” Romney replied. “I said, I’m not concerned about the very poor that have a safety net, but if it has holes in it, then I will repair it.”

AWIP: Devastating anti-Romney film surfaces (Video)
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Russia Today: When ignorance not bliss: US politicians without borders - VIDEO

Greece's financial crisis has made some families so desperate they are giving up the most precious thing of all - their children. - One morning a few weeks before Christmas a kindergarten teacher in Athens found a note about one of her four-year-old pupils. "I will not be coming to pick up Anna today because I cannot afford to look after her," it read. "Please take good care of her. Sorry. Her mother." In the last two months Father Antonios, a young Orthodox priest who runs a youth centre for the city's poor, has found four children on his doorstep - including a baby just days old. [...] One of the children cared for by Father Antonios is Natasha, a bright two-year-old brought to his centre by her mother a few weeks ago. The woman said she was unemployed and homeless and needed help - but before staff could offer her support she had vanished, leaving her daughter behind. "Over the last year we have hundreds of cases of parents who want to leave their children with us - they know us and trust us," Father Antonios says. "They say they do not have any money or shelter or food for their kids, so they hope we might be able to provide them with what they need." Requests of this kind were not unknown before the crisis - but Father Antonios has never until now come across children being simply abandoned. His organisation, Kivotos, tries to prevent children being separated from their parents. They currently have 30 apartments they use to house families in need.

Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos has warned that his country faces 'the specter of bankruptcy and all the dire consequences that it entails.' - Lucas Papademos said on Sunday that Greece would default on its debts and might not be able to pay off its loans, and thus forced out of the eurozone unless the country's international creditors agreed to a new bailout. The warning comes as Greece's international lenders say the country needs EUR145 billion of public money from the eurozone for its second bailout to escape economic failure. The figure is more than the planned EUR130 billion because of the deteriorating economic situation in Greece. The European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have presented Greece with two rescue packages so far in return for specific austerity measures, which include cutting public sector salaries and pensions, increasing taxes and overhauling the pension system.

Stefan Steinberg: Berlin calls for EU-run bankers’ dictatorship over Greek economy

An Iranian lawmaker says the Majlis (parliament) Energy Committee has finalized a draft bill to stop the country's oil exports to EU member states in reaction to the bloc's recent decision to ban oil imports from Iran. - Nasser Soudani, deputy chairman of the committee, said on Saturday that the double-urgency bill for halting Iran oil exports to Europe had been finalized in four clauses. “According to one of the main clauses, the Islamic Republic of Iran will halt all oil exports to European countries as long as they continue to ban oil imports from Iran,” he added. The lawmaker said the bill may undergo further modifications as some Iranian parliamentarians believe that oil exports to EU should be stopped for five years.

PressTV: '70 EU refineries to shut for Iran oil ban'

In a speech Thursday to the Davos World Economic Forum, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged that his Conservative government will pursue a “transformative” big business agenda—austerity and tax cuts, radical regressive changes to public health care and pensions, and deregulation. In short, a social policy counter-revolution. With a significant cross-section of the world’s financial elite in the audience, Harper touted Canada as a haven for investors, where businesses already enjoy the lowest taxes on new investment of any G-7 country. But, he vowed, “We will do more, much more.”

India has reportedly agreed to pay Tehran in gold for the oil it buys, in a move aimed at protecting Delhi from US-sanctions targeting countries who trade with Iran. China, another buyer of Iranian oil, may follow Delhi’s lead.

The report, by the Israeli-based news website DEBKAfile, states that Iran and India are negotiating backup alternatives with China and Russia, should the US and EU find a way to block the gold payment mechanism.

Delhi’s move is seen as surprising, as earlier India and Iran said they would switch to yen and rupees. China, another major importer of Iranian oil, may follow Delhi’s lead, the report adds. India and China need to switch from the dollar in bilateral trade, since the US and EU have issued unilateral sanctions against the Iranian oil industry and financial institutions. The sanctions would ban any bank involved in oil trade with Iran from dealing with American and European counterparts. Both India and China, two major buyers of Iranian oil accounting for 22 and 13 percent of its total export respectively, have refused to join such sanctions. This means they have to establish a reliable way of paying for crude, independently of the parts of the global financial system controlled by New York and London.

Delhi’s current plan is to effect payments through two state-owned banks, India’s UCO Bank and Turkey’s Halk Bankasi, Turkey being another country refusing to join the sanction spree.

PressTV: Algeria defies EU oil embargo on Iran

Tens of thousands of demonstrators have poured into the streets of several cities in eastern Spain to protest against the government's austerity measures.

The protesters marched in the region's three largest cities of Alicante, Castellon and Valencia on Thursday chanting slogans and carrying large banners which read "No to cuts to public services." The rallies were organized by Spain's main labor unions. Union officials said around 200,000 people took part in the protests in the three cities. Unions' leaders called for the protests after the regional government of Valencia, Spain's most indebted region, announced deep spending cuts to health and education sectors. According to the Spanish daily El Pais, the regional government's debt to the area's roughly 400 schools is around 33 million Euros. Some of school teachers are buying chalk for blackboards and students are required to bring their own paper for exams. Hit by the global financial downturn, the Spanish economy collapsed into recession in the second half of 2008, destroying millions of jobs.

Bloomberg: Unemployment in Spain Rises to 22.9%
Mike Jobson: Striking truckers, fishermen clash with Italian government

The Pentagon detailed the Defense Department cuts on Thursday that US President Barack Obama hinted at earlier in the month. - While the agenda for the DoD isn’t full of surprises, it exemplifies a trend that the military has seen more and more as of late: droves of drones replacing real-life soldiers. Under the Pentagon’s new budget plan, America’s war-time arsenal will see a drastic decrease in the number of servicemen, with the DoD instead spending money on robotic unmanned vehicles. Drone aircraft, drone submarines and drone helicopters will be added by the dozens while the US military eliminates around 100,000 positions. The Defense Department asks Congress for $525 billion, a smaller number than the $553 billion it wanted in 2011. Cuts will come in all divisions of the Armed Forces, with the Army losing 80,000 soldiers and the Marine Corps around 20,000. The Air Force will miss nearly 100 cargo planes and the Navy will retire an arsenal of cruisers earlier than it had planned. But as the Pentagon brings down its numbers and will save a few thousand men and women from the eventual onslaught of PTSD, it will focus its development not on bettering things for the human beings fighting America’s wars, but on a futuristic fleet of space-age weaponry. Come 2015, military pay raises will begin to stagger and, barring any unforeseen foreign involvements, the tally of troops will continue to shrink.

In a meeting on Monday between U.S. State Department and Israeli officials, the U.S. officials promised to extend loan guarantees to Israel for the next three years. The $3.8 billion in loan backing is in addition to the $3 billion a year in aid given to Israel by the U.S. government. - Israel is the only recipient of U.S. foreign aid and loans that is not considered a ‘developing’ nation, with an annual GDP of $235 billion ($29,800 per capita). In contrast, the next biggest recipient of U.S. aid, Egypt, receives less than half of the amount given to Israel and has a GDP of $6,200 per capita. Every other recipient of US aid has a GDP that is below that of Egypt. The U.S. Congress recently approved a guaranteed $30 billion in aid to Israel over the next 10 years. This aid, unlike assistance provided by the U.S. government to other countries, has no requirements, and is provided without stipulation as to how it should be used.

The Republican presidential candidate collected as much in a single day as the average American family makes in a full year. - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney released his tax returns Tuesday morning, revealing that he collected income of $21.7 million in 2010 and $20.9 million in 2011, nearly $42.6 million over the two-year period. Not a penny of this income was from salary or wages reported on a W-2. Nearly all of it was investment income, including capital gains, dividends and interest.

Justin Raimondo: Adelson, Gingrich, and the Selling of America - If you want to know what’s wrong with our campaign finance laws – and our political system in a more general sense – look at the way Sheldon Adelson is buying the Republican nomination for his sock puppet, Newt Gingrich. So what is Adelson’s agenda? He and his allies have been campaigning for war with Iran for years, not only here but in the Middle East. Adelson is a major financial backer of Israel’s ultra-nationalist Likud party, which calls in its platform for a “Greater Israel,” and he has backed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the hilt.

PressTV: Obama renews anti-Iran war rhetoric

[PUKE READ:] Following is the transcript of President Obama’s State of the Union address on Jan. 24, 2012, as released by the White House: THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans: Last month, I went to Andrews Air Force Base and welcomed home some of our last troops to serve in Iraq. Together, we offered a final, proud salute to the colors under which more than a million of our fellow citizens fought — and several thousand gave their lives. We gather tonight knowing that this generation of heroes has made the United States safer and more respected around the world. (Applause.) For the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq. (Applause.) For the first time in two decades, Osama bin Laden is not a threat to this country. (Applause.) Most of al Qaeda’s top lieutenants have been defeated. The Taliban’s momentum has been broken, and some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home. These achievements are a testament to the courage, selflessness and teamwork of America’s Armed Forces. At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations. They’re not consumed with personal ambition. They don’t obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together.

PressTV: Obama renews anti-Iran war rhetoric
Russia Today: Obama’s new fairytale: Peace and prosperity for war-bent US
Patrick Martin: Obama’s State of the Union address: War and wage-cutting

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The Lebanese Cabinet has a meeting scheduled regarding the contentious issue of Beirut’s energy policies in relation to the country’s offshore energy assets.

At stake are massive offshore Mediterranean sub-sea natural gas reserves but the issue involves competing seabed claims with Israel, Cyprus and Turkey. Offshore maritime assets fall under the general delineation terms of the 1982 U.N. Law of the Sea Convention. That provides each country with a 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone for unilateral development of offshore assets. But the issue becomes complicated in congested waters with overlapping claims, as in the eastern Mediterranean. Massive natural gas reserves have been discovered in the region and the fields cross international boundaries. Sources familiar with the governmental discussions said that the 2007 rejection by the Turkish government of the proposed demarcation maritime border between Lebanon and the Republic of Cyprus resulted in the failure of the governments to ratify a proposed bilateral agreement. Issues between Turkey and the Republic of Cyprus, a member of the European Union, remain complex and delicate. According to UNCLOS terms, countries with shared maritime borders must reach bilateral agreements for the demarcation of the borders. Accordingly, Lebanon, Israel and Cyprus are obliged to complete a tripartite agreement on the demarcation of the maritime area they share. Last week Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour said Lebanon is studying the maritime issues related to Mediterranean energy assets and intends to take the dispute to the United Nations.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman says unilateral sanctions adopted by the European Union against Iran are "unfair" and "doomed to fail." - "The method of threat, pressure and unfair sanctions against a nation that has a strong reason for its approach is doomed to fail," Ramin Mehmanparast said Monday. He added that such measures will not "prevent Iran from achieving its inalienable right" to peacefully use nuclear energy. The spokesman further stated that the EU had adopted the decision under the political pressure of the United States, and advised the bloc to value its interests instead of bowing to Washington. "It seems the American authorities want to disrupt the energy sources of their rivals and weaken their economic rivals under the pretext of piling up political pressure on Iran," he said. Mehmanparast said the oil embargo cannot become real given the European Union's "economic crisis." He emphasized that any country that wants to deprive itself of Iran's vast energy reserves will be "immediately replaced by other countries."

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PressTV: 'Europeans to suffer from Iran oil ban'
Jason Ditz: EU Agrees on ‘Gradual’ Iran Oil Embargo
Peter Symonds: European Union imposes oil embargo on Iran

Germany has the economic strengths America once boasted -- Germany with its manufacturing base and export prowess is the U.S. of yesteryear, an economic power unlike any of its European neighbors. It has thrived on principles America seems to have lost. - Every summer, Volkmar and Vera Kruger spend three weeks vacationing in the south of France or at a cool getaway in Denmark. For the other three weeks of their annual vacation, they garden or travel a few hours away to root for their favorite team in Germany's biggest soccer stadium. The couple, in their early 50s, aren't retired or well off. They live in a small Tudor-style house in this middle-class town about 30 miles northwest of Frankfurt. He's a foreman at a glass factory; she works part time for a company that tracks inventories for retailers. Their combined income is a modest $40,000. Yet the Krugers have a higher standard of living than many Americans who have twice that income. Their secret: little debt, frugal habits and a government that is intensely focused on high production, low inflation and extensive social services. That has given them job security and good medical care as well as well-maintained roads, trains and bike paths. Both of their adult children are out on their own, thanks in part to Germany's job-training system and heavy subsidies for university education.

It's a practice more closely associated with third world countries, but in bleak times in a Chicago-area suburb, 30 people were buried in a mass grave on Wednesday. - The pauper's burial section at Homewood Memorial Gardens was established for those who could not afford to pay for a burial plot. And it is a problem that's sweeping America as tough economic times have led to an increase in the number of indigent burials the morgue must perform. No mourners were present for the burial at the cemetery, which lies 25 miles south west of Chicago. The gruesome discovery of the pauper's burial section at Homewood was made last year, sparking a call for more strict federal regulations for cemeteries. Sheriff's officials had found caskets stacked on top of one another - some buried eight at a time - at Homewood. And the morgue has been accused of missing markers and poor record keeping. But coroners have said the practice is shared in other cities and states across the U.S.

An Iranian commander has warned that Tehran is on full alert in case of enemy threats, and has the best submarines in the world ready to “ambush and hit enemy vessels, especially US Aircraft carriers, from the seabed throughout the Persian Gulf.” - Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Army's Self-Sufficiency Jihad Rear Admiral Farhad Amiri hailed the Iranian submarines as “the best electronic diesel vessels in the world, noiseless and able to easily evade detection as they are equipped with sonar-evading technology," the country’s semi-state Fars news agency reported. The Iranian military official said the vessels can fire missiles and torpedoes simultaneously, underlining that the submarines’ superiority was not just due to their arms and equipment, but also “the tactical issues are very important", given the geographical specifications of the waters surrounding the country. A submarine of this type sitting on the seabed can easily target and hit an aircraft carrier traversing nearby regions, hinting at the US aircraft carriers deployed in the Persian Gulf.

Leslie H. Gelb: Think Before Acting on Iran
Khaleej Times: Iran warns region against stance on Hormuz

The bankers made a decision to move the balance of power to the East, led by China. In exchange, China has made some concessions to the bankers pet country? - "Rothschild, the more-than-200-year-old family-controlled banking dynasty, is making a big move in China, and Yu is leading the charge. It plans to add 15 merger advisers there by March, giving it 55 in all, more than any foreign investment bank, says Olivier Pecoux, co-chief executive officer of Rothschild. Today, the merger business in China is still relatively small. So far this year, China has accounted for about 9 percent of the $1.1 trillion in deals around the globe, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The potential, though, is enormous. China has $2.5 trillion in untapped foreign currency reserves and is mandating that state-owned companies expand abroad to secure natural resources such as oil and metals. "The economic balance of power has already changed, and it is moving to the East," says Yu, whose title is head of greater China. "There will be an increasing number of Western companies selling assets to China.""

European University Association (EUA) has been monitoring the evolution of the economic crisis and its effects on higher education systems in Europe since its onset in 2008 and has published several reports (see below).

The monitoring is conducted in close cooperation with EUA collective members, the National Rectors’ Conferences, who report on developments within their national higher education systems on a regular basis. The continuous feedback from various sources provides up-to-date reports of the situation and highlights the evolving nature of the effects the crisis has had on university funding across Europe. The main objective of the monitoring is to look at the impact of the crisis on universities’ public funding and to identify in particular the trends in public funding across Europe. It also explores how the crisis has affected the nature of public funding and how such shifts are influencing universities at institutional level. The map compiles information on most European countries for which EUA has collected data. Figures are sometimes difficult to compare given the different methodologies used to calculate cuts in public funding and the different times when these take place; however, the comparison should give a sense of the trends in public funding and the latest developments across Europe. The map necessarily simplifies often complex situations. [Click on map to enlarge]

The Government is undertaking "extensive contingency planning" in the event of a eurozone collapse, peers have been told. - Treasury minister Lord Sassoon said the planning was aimed at dealing with "all potential outcomes of the eurozone crisis". At question time, he said Britain wanted to see a "strong and dynamic" eurozone and European economy. But he stressed it was for the eurozone countries to "take the lead in supporting the euro as a currency". Lord Sassoon also indicated that Britain would be prepared to stump up more cash to tackle the crisis if the IMF requested it. "The Government sees the role of the IMF to support individual countries and not to support currencies. "If the IMF puts forward a case, as it may well do, for an increase in its resources, if there is a strong case the UK will, as it has always done in the past, support the IMF in increasing resources as required," he said. Tory former chancellor Lord Lawson of Blaby said: "There is only one thing as worrying as the collapse of the eurozone and that's the continuation of the eurozone."

Greece is insolvent and probably won’t be able to honor a bond payment in March as the country negotiates with creditors to cut its debt burden, Fitch Ratings Managing Director Edward Parker said. - The euro area’s most indebted country is unlikely to be able to honor a March 20 bond payment of 14.5 billion euros ($18 billion), Parker said today in an interview in Stockholm. Efforts to arrange a private sector deal on how to handle Greece’s obligations would constitute a default, he said. Prime Minister Lucas Papademos is scheduled to meet tomorrow with a group representing private bondholders after a five-day break to hold talks on forgiving at least 50 percent of the nation’s debt in the euro area’s first sovereign restructuring. Greece’s official creditors begin talks Jan. 20 on spending curbs and budget cuts that will determine whether to disburse additional aid.

Barely a week after presidential candidate Mitt Romney's role as former head of the private equity firm Bain Capital erupted as an issue in the Republican primary campaign, there is a concerted effort by the media to bring an end to the discussion. The Republican front-runner made an estimated $250 million during his years as the head of Bain from 1984 to 1999. - Romney's rivals, Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, and Texas Governor Rick Perry appear to have pulled back from denouncing Romney as a “vulture capitalist,” and testimonials defending both Romney and the leveraged buyout industry have proliferated. The major financial interests do not want a broader debate over charges, leveled by Gingrich and Perry in an attempt to revive their campaigns, that investment firms such as Bain make money by destroying jobs and robbing workers of their wages, pensions and health benefits. Wall Street rightly fears that such a discussion will only deepen the growing popular hostility toward the capitalist system itself.

AWIP: Devastating anti-Romney film surfaces - VIDEO

The Indian foreign secretary says New Delhi will continue to import oil from Tehran and does not seek a US waiver as protection against Washington's sanctions on the Iranian oil sector. - "We have accepted sanctions which are made by the United Nations. Other sanctions do not apply to individual countries," Ranjan Mathai was quoted by Reuters as saying on Tuesday. Implying that India did not see the new US sanctions against Iran's oil as binding, he added, "We continue to buy oil from Iran." US President Barack Obama signed a new law on December 31, 2011, which seeks to impose fresh economic sanctions against Iran's Central Bank and oil sector.

A top military advisor to the Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution stressed Iran's ability to guarantee security of global energy supplies in the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormoz and the Sea of Oman, but at the same time cautioned that the country will use all means to defend its interests in time of threat. - Speaking to reporters here in Tehran on Monday, Supreme Leader's Advisor for Military Affairs Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi pointed to a letter sent to Iran on the Strait of Hormoz, and noted that the strait is a strategic waterway both for global trade and global energy. Safavi further said Iran's coastal line is stretched from Iraqi Southeastern Al-Faw peninsula to Guatr in the Sea of Oman and for this very reason Iran can control and guarantee security of global energy in this region. An estimated 40 percent of the world's oil supply passes through the waterway. The United States has said it would not allow Iran to block the Strait, calling it a "red line" for the US military. In response, Lieutenant Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Hossein Salami dismissed the US warning over the closure of the strategic strait, and stressed that powerful Iran acts on its own and never asks for anyone's permission to carry out what it desires. In relevant remarks earlier this month, a senior Iranian legislator stressed that Iran will use all its capabilities and possibilities to defend the country against foreign threats and the country will use the Strait of Hormoz as a defensive tool and will close the waterway if it comes under threat.

Romanian police fired tear gas and clashed with protesters during an anti-government rally Saturday, the third consecutive day of demonstrations against austerity cuts and falling living standards. - The protests were the most serious since President Traian Basescu came to power in 2004 and were the result of pent-up frustration against public wage cuts, slashed benefits, higher taxes and widespread corruption. In 2009, Romania took a two-year €20 billion ($27.5 billion) loan from the International Monetary Fund, the EU and the World Bank, as its economy shrank by 7.1 percent. Romania imposed harsh austerity measures under the agreement, reducing public wages by 25 percent and increasing taxes. The unlikely catalyst for the protests, however, was the resignation of popular health official Raed Arafat, a Palestinian with Romanian citizenship who opposed health reforms proposed by the government. On Friday, Basescu told the government to scrap the reforms, but public anger had already risen against Basescu and the government.

IMF confirms sending mission to Egypt next week to discuss possible financial support. - The International Monetary Fund confirmed Thursday it was sending a mission to Egypt to discuss possible financial aid to the country, even as analysts cautioned that the potential lifeline may not be enough to stem serious economic worries that materialized following former President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster. Egypt turned down a $3 billion IMF load in June, when officials argued that they did not want to saddle a new, post-Mubarak civilian government with additional debt. In the aftermath of the popular uprising that toppled Mubarak with ongoing political unrest and instability, the country’s economic situation has deteriorated sharply over the past year, with net international reserves falling by 50 percent and tourism and foreign investment hammered.

A week after a man killed a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington in 2009, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano cited the murder as proof that nonprofit institutions were at risk of attack and could be helped by federal security grants. - In an event announcing $1.7 billion in Department of Homeland Security grants, Napolitano noted that 63 percent of nonprofit grant recipients were "affiliated with Jewish organizations." The following year, according to the Jewish Federations of North America, that number grew. In 2010, 94 percent of the department's nonprofit security funding went to Jewish groups that are, in the words of the Department of Homeland Security, "at high risk of terrorist attack." That included $222,000 for Jewish nonprofits in Missouri.

Evil Wall Streeters Welcomed As Chief of Staff At This White House. - All three of President Barack Obama’s chiefs of staff earned millions of dollars after passing through the revolving doors that lie between the Democratic Party and Wall Street. Yet Obama is positioning himself as Wall Street’s foe in the 2012 election, aided by millions of dollars in political donations from Wall Street companies, including Goldman Sachs. Rahm Emanuel and Bill Daley, and now Jacob Lew, are all career Democrats who have taken lucrative trips through those revolving doors, eliciting jeers from Republicans who say Obama is running an administration of crony capitalists.

AWIP: Ex-Citigroup exec replaces ex-JPMorgan banker...

Immigrants are for sale in this country. Sold to private prison corporations who are locking them up for obscene profits! Here are the top 3 things YOU need to know about the Private Prison money scheme: The victims: Private prisons don't care about who they lock up. At a rate of $200 per immigrant a night at their prisons, this is a money making scheme that destroys families and lives. The players: CCA (Corrections Corporation of America), The Geo Group and Management and Training corporations—combined these private prisons currently profit more than $5 billion a year. The money: These private prisons have spent over $20 million lobbying state legislators to make sure they get state anti-immigrant laws approved and ensure access to more immigrant inmates. Be a part of the movement to follow the players, the money and the victims of this money making scheme @ immigrantsforsale.org

Obama has made it clear that China is a threat to the US in more ways than one. The countries are two of the world's largest economies, but some economists believe China's economy will surpass the US' economy in five years. Critics believe that is the motive behind President Obama's announcement to station 2500 Marines in Australia. China considers the shift of power as an attempt to escalate military tension in the Asia-Pacific. Paul Craig Roberts, former Reagan Administration official and columnist, joins us to give us insight on whats going on between the US and China.

PressTV: China rebuffs US over Iran sanctions

It had been widely reported that Daley was the focus of tensions within the White House, and last November, after the administration failed to secure a “grand bargain” deficit-cutting deal with the Republicans, Daley announced he was giving up day-to-day management of White House affairs. There was some press speculation that Daley’s departure was related to Obama’s decision to base his reelection campaign on attacking congressional Republicans for obstructing his supposed jobs initiatives, combined with doses of populist rhetoric about defending the middle class and fighting Wall Street. Whatever electoral calculations may have been involved, however, the shift in White House personnel does not reflect any change in the right-wing, pro-corporate policies of the Obama administration. On the contrary, the appointment of Lew underscores the incestuous relationship between the Obama White House and Wall Street. All three of Obama’s chiefs of staff—Rahm Emanuel (2009-2010), Daley (2011-2012) and Lew—are multi-millionaires who made their fortunes as top executives of major banks.

[Editor's Comment:] Jacob Lew is an American Orthodox Jew and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. (Wikipedia). This speaks volumes about the state of affairs in American governance. Clearly, the American President is a puppet of Israel & the financial elite. It has been like this for a very long time. We have to ask ourselves, in all honesty: If the White House, House & Senate had been this saturated with Muslims and their non-Muslim friends, controlling everything with their money, this would have been a big problem too, wouldn't it? And how could the Government possibly be representing the American people as a whole when a tiny group of extremely wealthy people, representing just under 2% of the population, are in charge year after year? And when this particular group is working for a foreign country instead of for America, doesn't this seem to be...well, problematic, for lack of a better word? It's about time to take America back, isn't it?

Kenny's Sideshow: Lew(d) - In US discourse it is normally considered anti-Semitic to suggest that individuals are appointed to senior positions because they are Jewish, or represent the Jewish community. We'll suggest it anyway. Jacob (Jack) Lew, an Orthodox Jew, will be taking over as the White House Chief of Staff, a position considered to be closest to the President’s ear. Did Obama appoint Lew as a signal to jewish money and influence that he is on board with all things Israel or was he just the best man for the job?

Alan Hart/Occupied Palestine: The Zionization of American politics and how it could be terminated

Greeks Go Back To The Land --- University graduates become snail farmers. A nuclear physicist trains to become a ship engineer. Not such unusual stories when urban employment is so high. Many are returning to rural areas, others are going to sea. - Nikos Gavalas and Alexandra Tricha, both 31 and trained as agriculturalists, were frustrated working on poorly paying, short-term contracts in Athens, where jobs are scarce and the cost of living is high. So last year, they decided to start a new project: growing edible snails for export. As Greece’s blighted economy plunges further into the abyss, the couple are joining with an exodus of Greeks who are fleeing to the countryside and looking to the nation’s rich rural past as a guide to the future. They acknowledge that it is a peculiar undertaking, with more manual labor than they, as college graduates, ever imagined doing. But in a country starved by austerity even as it teeters on the brink of default, it seemed as good a gamble as any.

Tehran’s leadership has decided to order a blockade of the strategic Strait of Hormuz if the country’s oil exports are blocked, a senior Revolutionary Guard Commander said as reported by Iranian press. - The strategic decision was made by Iran's top authorities, Ali Ashraf Nouri said, as cited by the Iranian Khorasan daily. "The supreme authorities … have insisted that if enemies block the export of our oil, we won't allow a drop of oil to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. This is the strategy of the Islamic Republic in countering such threats," Nouri said. Until now, there had been no official confirmation of Iran’s military having direct orders to block the Strait. However, Tehran has been threatening to block the strategic waterway – one of the world's most important oil routes – if the West slapped more sanctions on its oil exports or risked hostile military act of any kind. Meanwhile, Iran is planning a new round of “massive” naval drills codenamed The Great Prophet, which will be carried out by the country’s elite Revolutionary Guard with its own air, naval and ground forces, separate from those of the regular military.

The end of the US military occupation does not mean Iraqis have full control of their oil. - While the US military has formally ended its occupation of Iraq, some of the largest western oil companies, ExxonMobil, BP and Shell, remain. On November 27, 38 months after Royal Dutch Shell announced its pursuit of a massive gas deal in southern Iraq, the oil giant had its contract signed for a $17bn flared gas deal. Three days later, the US-based energy firm Emerson submitted a bid for a contract to operate at Iraq's giant Zubair oil field, which reportedly holds some eight million barrels of oil.

Allies of Newt Gingrich have launched their fiercest attack yet on Republican front-runner Mitt Romney, with a half-hour film designed to destroy his claims to be a job-creating entrepreneur. - The 28-minute video, which will likely show up on TV in the coming weeks, by the Gingrich-leaning Winning Our Future Super PAC assails Mr Romney for "reaping massive awards" while head of Bain Capital, a private equity firm. "King Of Bain: When Mitt Romney came to town" features "regular Americans" saying they lost their jobs and homes due to their firms being dismantled by Bain. A three-minute trailer for the film has been released, along with a preamble which calls Romney a "predatory corporate raider".

New York Times: Pro-Gingrich PAC Details Ads Against Romney as Predatory Capitalist
Richard Silverstein: Sheldon Adelson Funds $5-Million TV Ad Campaign on Gingrich’s Behalf

[He who pays the piper calls the tune:]

Haaretz: Sheldon Adelson: Gingrich is right to call Palestinians 'invented people'
AWIP: Gingrich calls Palestinians 'invented' people
AWIP: Gingrich Condemned for Calling Palestinians 'Terrorists'

The six corporations that collectively control U.S. media today are Time Warner, Walt Disney, Viacom, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., CBS Corporation and NBC Universal. - Back in 1983, approximately 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the United States. Today, ownership of the news media has been concentrated in the hands of just six incredibly powerful media corporations. These corporate behemoths control most of what we watch, hear and read every single day. They own television networks, cable channels, movie studios, newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, music labels and even many of our favorite websites. Sadly, most Americans don't even stop to think about who is feeding them the endless hours of news and entertainment that they constantly ingest. Most Americans don't really seem to care about who owns the media. But they should. The truth is that each of us is deeply influenced by the messages that are constantly being pounded into our heads by the mainstream media. The average American watches 153 hoursof television a month. In fact, most Americans begin to feel physically uncomfortable if they go too long without watching or listening to something. Sadly, most Americans have become absolutely addicted to news and entertainment and the ownership of all that news and entertainment that we crave is being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands each year.

I don’t know any of the participants in this trailer - they all seem to me pretty ordinary people. Yet, it is clear that each of them posses more wisdom than our entire political system. I guess that the meaning of it is simple. The revolution is here. "War is when the government tells you who the bad guy is. Revolution is when you decide that for yourself."

The horse race is really underway here, but what real options do the American people have? What choice can they make that will have a positive effect on their financial future, not to mention their constitutional rights and civil liberties? It doesn’t look to us like there is any leader who can unify the country. Obama had the political currency and the skill to do that 3 years ago, but he squandered it. So where does that put the rest of us now exactly? Feels kind of like the Twilight Zone, and we will bring in former assistant treasury secretary Paul Craig Roberts to tell us what he thinks. And speaking of the twilight zone, let’s talk a bit about Iran. After all, it is center stage once again as the candidates look to out gun each other. Iran has threatened to act if the US navy moves an aircraft carrier into the gulf. This as New US and EU sanctions target the Islamic Republic. What doe this mean for Oil prices for you and I and is the US sabre rattling worth the cost? Well, again, we will speak to Paul Craig Roberts, an assistant treasury secretary under the Reagan Administration for answers to that questions. And lastly, with millions of dollars being spent by the GOP candidates and other groups in Iowa on TV ads, maybe we should all just fund one big ad, like the famous “daisy ad” which …

The following report is based on the work of statistician John Williams of shadowstats.com. - Today’s (Friday, January 6) payroll jobs report of 200,000 new jobs in December is overstated by at least 82,000 jobs. As approximately 130,000 new jobs are needed each month to stay even with population growth, the December job figures actually indicate that the US economy fell another 12,000 jobs behind. Forty-two thousand of the reported jobs are the result of a glitch in the BLS seasonal adjustment model that produces a false jump in December “couriers and messengers”jobs. Forty thousand of the jobs result from the “birth/death” model that BLS uses to estimate the net effect of unreported jobs lost from business closures and jobs gained from new start-ups. The model is structured to represent normal times. During the bottom bouncing of this protracted downturn, the model over-estimates new jobs from start-ups and under-estimates job losses from business failures. The official unemployment rates (U3 and U6) no longer measure all of the unemployed.

PressTV: 'US job crisis to linger for years to come'
Barry Grey: Obama hails tepid job growth in December
Paul Craig Roberts: The Dismal Economic Outlook For The New Year

We have all been lied to. For decades, the leaders of both major political parties have promised us that they can fix our current system and that they can get our national debt under control. - As the 2012 election approaches, they are making all kinds of wild promises once again. Well you know what? It is all a giant sham. The United States has gotten into so much debt that there will be no coming back from this. The current system is irretrievably broken. 30 years ago the U.S. debt was a horrific crisis that was completely and totally out of control. If we would have dealt with it back then maybe we could have done something about it. But now it is 15 times larger, and we are adding more than a trillion dollars to the debt every single year. ■ The facts that you are about to read below should set America on fire with anger. Please share them with as many people as you can. What we are doing to our children and our grandchildren is absolutely nightmarish. Words like "abuse", "financial rape", "theft" and "crime" do not even begin to describe what we are doing to future generations. We were the wealthiest nation on earth, but it wasn't good enough just to squander all of our own money. We had to squander the money of our children and our grandchildren as well. America has been so selfish and so self-centered that it is hard to argue that we don't deserve what is about to happen to this country. We have stolen the future of America, and yet we strut around as if we are the smartest generation that ever walked the face of the earth. All of this prosperity that we see all around us is just an illusion. It is a false prosperity that has been purchased by the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world.

China has voiced strong opposition to the US-led push for unilateral sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, reiterating that Tehran's nuclear issue must be resolved diplomatically. - "China has consistently believed that sanctions are not the correct way to ease tensions or resolve the issue of Iran's nuclear program," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a news briefing in Beijing on Wednesday. "The correct path is dialogue and negotiations. China opposes putting domestic law above international law to impose unilateral sanctions on another country," he said. Hong also defended China's oil and trade ties with Iran and criticized the Western sanctions that could frustrate such relations.

Tens of thousands of Hungarians protested in Budapest on Monday against the government and its new Basic Law in a show of anxiety over what they see as the ruling Fidesz party's moves to weaken democratic institutions and cement its powers. - Centre-right Fidesz, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, won a two-thirds majority in elections in 2010 and has rewritten a large body of law since, drawing accusations at home and abroad that it has undermined democratic checks and balances. The Basic Law, which replaced the previous constitution as of January 1, recasts rules governing many walks of life in what Fidesz calls a completion of a democratization process that started in 1989 when communism collapsed. Parliament forged ahead with the legislation despite a plea from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for a rethink and a letter from European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso asking Orban to withdraw two key bills. The dispute has cast doubt over talks with the European Union and IMF about a new financing agreement, seen as crucial for Hungary to shore up market confidence.

Markus Salzmann: Thousands protest austerity measures in Hungary
Markus Salzmann: Authoritarian regime takes shape in Hungary
BBC: Hungary outlaws homeless in move condemned by charities
EU Observer: EU slams Hungary for power-grab on central bank

Swaziland's King Mswati III accused by activists of human rights abuses and of looting national wealth. - Coca-Cola has been accused of propping up one of Africa's most notorious dictators. The multibillion dollar beverage company owns a concentrate-manufacturing plant in Swaziland, an impoverished kingdom ruled by Africa's last absolute monarch, Mswati III. The king has travelled to Coca-Cola's headquarters in Atlanta in the US, much to the disgust of Swazi political activists who blame him for human rights abuses and looting the nation's wealth. Mary Pais Da Silva, co-ordinator of the Swaziland Democracy Campaign, called for Coca-Cola to pull out of the country immediately.

Figure jumps to nearly 1,500, and likely to rise further, as many bodies remain buried in the debris in country's south. - The death toll from killer floods in the Philippines has risen by more than 200, more than a week after the disaster struck, with officials expecting more corpses to be found. The confirmed toll reached 1,453 on Tuesday, up sharply from 1,236 the previous day as navy and coastguard ships fished more bodies out of the waters off the southern island of Mindanao, the civil defence office said. The stench of death pervaded the region, a sign that many corpses still remained unrecovered on land, Ana Caneda, the regional civil defence chief, said. Tropical storm Washi brought heavy rains, overflowing rivers and flash floods to the southern Philippines from December 16 to 18, sweeping away whole villages built on sandbars and riverbanks.

Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen, who was severely injured by US police during a recent anti-Wall Street demonstration, says the government is terrorizing people to rob them of their right to protest.

“First and foremost, they're not respecting our right to assemble, to protest and to redress our government for grievances…By the tactics they're using, they are in fact terrorizing some of us from going out at all,” Olsen said in an interview with MSNBC. “It's sad that the Occupations have started out as politics and economics, and now it's turned into something more based on the rights, the freedoms that we are all told when we were growing up as Americans,” Olsen added.

Russia Today: Silence of the tweets: Occupy Boston in cop court case

Police forces in the US state of Colorado have dismantled the Occupy Denver encampment, evicting anti-corporatism protesters from the site. - Early Tuesday, Denver police used bulldozers to bring down tents and structures on Broadway near the Civic Center Park after some 50 protesters refused to move their tents. Police in riot gear clashed with protesters and journalists using batons, making at least four arrests. Over the past few weeks, police have broken up Occupy encampments in cities and towns across the US, harshly attacking and arresting dozens of protesters.

PressTV: San Antonio police arrest 5 'Occupy' protestors
PressTV: Police clear Occupy Denver - VIDEO

Peter Phillips of Project Censored speaks at the Grand Lake Theater for the 9/11 anniversary film festival on September 8, 2011.

US police have arrested several Occupy Wall Street protesters in the state of Iowa and charged them with trespassing, Press TV reports. - Police made the arrests on Wednesday when anti-corporate demonstrators were protesting at the campaign headquarters of the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the Iowa's capital city Des Moines. Occupy activists vowed to expand their demonstrations as Republican presidential hopefuls attend the Iowa caucus, a meeting in which the party's candidates speak in the race to win the party's presidential nomination. A number of "Occupy the Caucus" protesters also gathered in the lobby of a Wells Fargo bank branch in Des Moines. Iowa police detained nine protesters who entered the bank. The protesters say the bank has not disclosed its donations to Republican presidential candidates. In Oakland California, police have dismantled yet another occupy camp and arrested another person on charges of trespassing. Meanwhile, anti-Wall Street protesters in Washington D.C. have filed for a city permit to occupy Congress on January 17.