World World III? (Really)

Robert M. Gates and Ehud Barak, Israeli Defence Minister, in Jerusalem last week

Patrick J. Buchanan | Takimag | July 31, 2009

Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, who is wired into the cabinet of “Bibi” Netanyahu, warns that if Iran’s nuclear program is not aborted by December, Israel will strike to obliterate it.

Defense Secretary Gates’s mission to Israel this week, says Bolton, to relay Obama’s red light, was listened to attentively, but will not be decisive.

Israel will decide.

One trusts Gates got into the face of Defense Minister Ehud Barak. For an Israeli strike on Iran, which Joe Biden foolishly said was Israel’s call, would drag this country into a third war in the Middle East and destroy a policy that is visibly succeeding.

Read Full Post »

The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore

The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore – The Walker Brothers — a band formed in Los Angeles that achieved greater success here in the UK (and Germany), than in their native USA, perhaps because they brought a little California sun into the dreary skyscape of the UK.

Last summer, here in the U.K., we had a heat wave towards the end of the summer term, followed by a lousy summer holiday and the year before that a lousy summer holiday followed by a heat wave at the beginning of the autumn term.

As there has been hardly a day without rain since we broke up three weeks ago, I am increasingly beginning to wonder why I continue to live here, having lived in much nicer places, and what the precise point of this bloody country really is.

I derive little comfort from the fact that things are little better on the other side of the Pond, as I learnt after reading this article from last Friday’s Noo Yoik Times.

I quote:

Not one 99-degree day in Central Park. Not a single day that the temperature even approached 90. For just the second time in 140 years of record keeping, the temperature failed to reach 90 in either June or July.

And again:

This summer, 85 is the new 95.

Read Full Post »

Ben the Banker…Yes, We Can!

More fun at Ben the Banker’s expense for all you fun-loving doods out there who love to watch him stutter and squirm in the face of awkward questions about the Fed.

But first, a video of the soi-disant Wizard of Oz being exposed as the charlatan he is:

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

Now for an article by Gary North:

Why Bernanke Is in Panic Mode

Gary North | Lew Rockwell.com | Saturday, August 1, 2009

Bernanke video: He stutters; he stammers; he is in visible panic mode over Ron Paul’s bill to audit the Federal Reserve. Watch it. You’ll love it! Then send it to your friends.

Usually, when Ben Bernanke is interviewed, he has the demeanor of a college professor in the presence of freshman students. Of course, as a full professor, he did not have to teach freshmen. That is for untenured assistant professors to do. Stammering and stuttering are therefore a real departure for him. There is a reason for this.

For the first time since 1914, there is a public debate in Congress over the Federal Reserve’s power. Never before has a majority of the House of Representatives called for what should always have existed: Congressional scrutiny over the FED’s money. Bernanke says that Ron Paul’s bill to audit the Federal Reserve is a bill to audit Federal Reserve policy. Yet the bill says nothing about auditing policy. So, what is he talking about?

Bernanke says that Congress can have access to an audit at any time. Sure it can – an audit vetted and sanitized by the FED, where no one knows which banks got what bailout money. This is an audit in the way a CIA audit is an audit. The main differences are these: (1) the CIA legally operates only outside the borders of the United States; (2) the CIA can assassinate any uncooperative Congressman who insists on a full audit. The FED does not have the second power, but it is not limited by the first restriction.

What has Bernanke panicked is this: the Federal Reserve has bailed out the biggest banks and has let almost 100 little ones die. This is crony capitalism at its most notorious.

Read more…

Here’s a video of the same occasion on youtube:

09 07 30 Bernanke Rebuttal – From PBS

kdenninger | 30 July 2009

On PBS I got a question into Ben Bernanke – who promptly ducked it. Here’s why he ducked it, and what it means. Analysis and a challenge, which I fully expect Bernanke will refuse to accept, of course.

Pass this one around to your friends and associates.

Finally, a comment from one of our readers:

75% of Americans Want To Audit the Fed – Thousands Want to Abolish It!

Read the petition and the angry comments at http://www.petitiononline.com/fed/petition.html

Thanks,

Ron

You’re welcome Ron, and welcome to the blog.

Read Full Post »