Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

The Baloon Deflates
Jul 11th, 2009
Daily NewsWilliam Kristol
Categories: Commentary

The American public remains resistant to big-government liberalism.

The air is seeping out of the Great Liberal Hot Air Balloon. American liberals have been hoping, wishing, and praying--okay, maybe not praying--for over a quarter-century for an end to the ghastly interlude of conservative dominance ushered in by Ronald Reagan. Surely it was all a bad dream, a waking nightmare, a bizarre deviation from the preordained path of history.

With the Democratic congressional victories in November 2006, the nightmare seemed to be ending. And in November 2008, with the election of Barack Obama and increased congressional majorities, it seemed to be over. A new era had dawned.

But did it? Maybe we're now experiencing a liberal interlude, not a liberal inflection point. After all, only six months into the new administration, even a talented hot air blower like President Obama, assisted by friendly gusts of wind from the media, is having trouble keeping the liberal blimp afloat.

The stimulus hasn't worked. Cap-and-trade and health care reform are in trouble. The can't-we-all-get-along foreign policy isn't leading to a more peaceful world. And the administration seems to have no idea what to do about Guantánamo.

Congressional Democrats are nervous. Even Obama's media base is concerned. At the end of last week, three leading Obamaphiles offered their lamentations. "The fact is, Obama may be blowing a major opportunity for reform," worried Joe Klein. "There's now a real risk that President Obama will find himself caught in a political-economic trap," warned Paul Krugman. "Failure. Overwhelming, amazing failure," was David Brooks's take on the administration's effort to deal health care inflation--something the president is (according to Brooks) "fervently committed to reducing."

Why such long faces? Because they realize that, despite the financial meltdown on the Bush administration's watch and the errors of omission and commission by the GOP over the last decade, the American public hasn't fundamentally rethought their turn in 1980 away from big government liberalism.

Gallup reports, "Thus far in 2009, 40 percent of Americans interviewed in national Gallup Poll surveys describe their political views as conservative, 35 percent as moderate, and 21 percent as liberal. This represents a slight increase for conservatism in the U.S. since 2008, returning it to a level last seen in 2004." This despite two decisive Democratic election victories in the intervening years. Gallup also reported that 39 percent of Americans say their political views have become more conservative in recent years. Only 18 percent say they've grown more liberal.

Similarly, a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll had Americans favoring smaller government with fewer services to a larger government with more services by 54 to 41 percent--a slightly more conservative result than in 2004. As Michael Barone summarizes the situation, "Americans seem to be recoiling against big government when it threatens to become a reality rather than a campaign promise."

Tactical errors by the Democrats and breakdowns in message discipline on the part of the administration are helping the recoil. When Americans hear Vice President Joe Biden say on Sunday, "We misread how bad the economy was," and then watch President Obama step out a couple of days later to explain, "I would actually, rather than say misread--we had incomplete information," they lose confidence in the administration's assurances that they know what they're doing in health care or energy policy.

Medvedev Unveils “World Currency” Coin At G8
Jul 11th, 2009
Daily Newswww.prisonplanet.com
Categories: Today's Headlines;World Government

In a highly symbolic moment at the G8 summit in Italy today, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev unveiled to reporters a coin representing a “united future world currency”.

“We are discussing both the use of other national currencies, including the ruble, as a reserve currency, as well as supranational currencies,” the Russian leader said at a news conference.

However, those who have downplayed the formulation of a world currency by dismissing it as merely a progression of SDR’s (Special Drawing Rights) and not something that would physically be used by citizens in a system of world government, were contradicted when Medvedev clearly outlined that the new currency would be “used for payment” by citizens as a “united future world currency”.

“This is a symbol of our unity and our desire to settle such issues jointly,” Medvedev said.

“Here it is,” Medvedev told reporters today in L’Aquila, Italy, after a summit of the Group of Eight nations. “You can see it and touch it,” reports Bloomberg.

The question of a supranational currency “concerns everyone now, even the mints,” Medvedev said. The test coin “means they’re getting ready. I think it’s a good sign that we understand how interdependent we are.”

Press images released to the Yahoo photo wire did not show any close up shots of the coin and little was known about it, except that it had been minted in Belgium and bears the words “unity in diversity”. An RIA Novosti report noted that the coin represented an example of a “possible global currency”.

China and Russia have repeatedly called for a new global currency to replace the dollar.

When confronted about plans to supplant the dollar with a new global currency, both Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner denied that such an agenda existed.

However, just days after he told a Congressional hearing that there were no plans to move towards a global currency, Geithner sought to please the elitist CFR by assuring them that he was “open” to the notion of a new global currency system.

The scandal-ridden and highly secretive Bank For International Settlements, considered to be the world’s top central banking power hub, released a policy paper in 2006 that called for the end of national currencies in favor of a global model of currency formats.

The global currency would be a key central plank of a future system of world government. Earlier this week, Pope Benedict called for a “world political authority” to manage the global economy.

Medvedev given first coin of future supranational currency at G8
Jul 11th, 2009
Daily NewsRIAnovosti
Categories: Today's Headlines;World Government

L'AQUILA, July 10 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday he had been given an example coin of a possible global currency at the G8 summit in Italy, adding that all aspects of reserve currencies were under discussion.

"We are discussing both the use of other national currencies, including the ruble, as a reserve currency, as well as supranational currencies," the Russian leader said at a news conference following the G8 summit.

Medvedev showed reporters an example of a coin of a supranational currency, which he called a "united future world currency."

"This is a symbol of our unity and our desire to settle such issues jointly," Medvedev said, adding that the coin had been made in Belgium.

He also expressed the hope that a day would come when something of the kind would be used for payment.

Gore: U.S. Climate Bill Will Help Bring About 'Global Governance'
Jul 11th, 2009
Daily NewsClimate Depot - Marc Morano
Categories: Today's Headlines;World Government

Former Vice President Al Gore declared that the Congressional climate bill will help bring about “global governance.”

“I bring you good news from the U.S., “Gore said on July 7, 2009 in Oxford at the Smith School World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment, sponsored by UK Times.

“Just two weeks ago, the House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey climate bill,” Gore said, noting it was “very much a step in the right direction.” President Obama has pushed for the passage of the bill in the Senate and attended a G8 summit this week where he agreed to attempt to keep the Earth's temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees C.

Gore touted the Congressional climate bill, claiming it “will dramatically increase the prospects for success” in combating what he sees as the “crisis” of man-made global warming.

“But it is the awareness itself that will drive the change and one of the ways it will drive the change is through global governance and global agreements.”

Gore's call for “global governance” echoes former French President Jacques Chirac's call in 2000.

On November 20, 2000, then French President Chirac said during a speech at The Hague that the UN's Kyoto Protocol represented "the first component of an authentic global governance."

“For the first time, humanity is instituting a genuine instrument of global governance,” Chirac explained. “From the very earliest age, we should make environmental awareness a major theme of education and a major theme of political debate, until respect for the environment comes to be as fundamental as safeguarding our rights and freedoms. By acting together, by building this unprecedented instrument, the first component of an authentic global governance, we are working for dialogue and peace,” Chirac added.

Former EU Environment Minister Margot Wallstrom said, "Kyoto is about the economy, about leveling the playing field for big businesses worldwide." Canadian Prime Minster Stephen Harper once dismissed UN's Kyoto Protocol as a “socialist scheme.”

'Global Carbon Tax' Urged at UN Meeting

In addition, calls for a global carbon tax have been urged at recent UN global warming conferences. In December 2007, the UN climate conference in Bali, urged the adoption of a global carbon tax that would represent “a global burden sharing system, fair, with solidarity, and legally binding to all nations.”

“Finally someone will pay for these [climate related] costs,” Othmar Schwank, a global tax advocate, said at the 2007 UN conference after a panel titled “A Global CO2 Tax.”

Schwank noted that wealthy nations like the U.S. would bear the biggest burden based on the “polluters pay principle.” The U.S. and other wealthy nations need to “contribute significantly more to this global fund,” Schwank explained. He also added, “It is very essential to tax coal.”

The 2007 UN conference was presented with a report from the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment titled “Global Solidarity in Financing Adaptation.” The report stated there was an “urgent need” for a global tax in order for “damages [from climate change] to be kept from growing to truly catastrophic levels, especially in vulnerable countries of the developing world.”

The tens of billions of dollars per year generated by a global tax would “flow into a global Multilateral Adaptation Fund” to help nations cope with global warming, according to the report.

Schwank said a global carbon dioxide tax is an idea long overdue that is urgently needed to establish “a funding scheme which generates the resources required to address the dimension of challenge with regard to climate change costs.”

'Redistribution of wealth'

The environmental group Friends of the Earth advocated the transfer of money from rich to poor nations during the 2007 UN climate conference.

"A climate change response must have at its heart a redistribution of wealth and resources,” said Emma Brindal, a climate justice campaigner coordinator for Friends of the Earth.

Gerald Celente
Jul 11th, 2009
CommentaryBlog
Categories: Commentary;Warning

US will go Bankrupt if China stops buying worthless U.S. debt.

Switch away from dollar could bankrupt U.S. economy - Gerald Celente 10 July.

Most international trade is done in dollars, but if it is abandoned for another currency, China and other suppliers may no longer want to buy worthless U.S. debt, argues Trend Research Institute founder Gerald Celente.

G8 summit skips dollar debate and aims lower on climate
Jul 11th, 2009
Daily NewsReuters - Darren Ennis and Alister Doyle
Categories: Today's Headlines;World Government

G8 leaders have failed to get emerging powers to agree climate change goals for 2050 and conclusions from their summit will not directly refer to a sensitive debate about the domination of the dollar.

Draft documents seen by Reuters on Wednesday ahead of the G8 summit and Thursday's meeting of the 17-nation Major Economies Forum showed the currency debate pushed by China being played down and hopes for a climate breakthrough had been overstated.

Making no mention of Chinese and Russian interest in seeking a long-term alternative global reserve currency, a draft seen by Reuters talked only of global "imbalances" -- which G8 diplomats had said might be the only oblique reference to currency.

"Stable and sustainable long-term growth will require a smooth unwinding of the existing imbalances in current accounts," it read.

China complains that dollar domination has exacerbated the global crisis and worries that the bill for U.S. recovery poses an inflation risk for China's dollar assets, an estimated 70 percent of its official currency reserves.

RISKS REMAIN

The Group of Eight meet in L'Aquila, a mountain town that was wrecked by an earthquake in April -- providing a fitting backdrop for discussions on the crumpled global economy that is struggling to overcome the worst recession in living memory.

It kicks off on Wednesday with the U.S., German, Japanese, French, British, Italian, Canadian and Russia leaders discussing the economic crisis. The draft statement warned "significant risks remain to economic and financial stability".

The G8 document cautioned that "exit strategies" from growth packages should only be unwound "once recovery is assured".

G8 leaders badly underestimated the economic problems facing them when they met in Japan last year and Wednesday's talks will touch on what nations must do to prevent another such meltdown.

However, officials said few major initiatives were expected to emerge, with the broader G20 forum, grouping rich industrial nations and major emerging economies, tasked with formulating a regulatory response to the crisis rather than the G8 nations.

The G20 met in London in April and convenes again in September in the United States.

"In reality (L'Aquila) is just an intermediary step," said a senior French official.

CHINESE RESISTANCE

U.S. President Barack Obama was expected to make his mark on his first G8 summit by chairing talks of the MEF, whose members account for about 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

But talks among MEF ministers in Rome, called at the last minute on Tuesday to prepare for the summit, failed to close the gap between U.S. and Europe on the one hand and emerging powers like China and India on the other hand.

Berlusconi spoke of meeting Chinese "resistance" and the G8 appeared to have failed to persuade China and India to agree to a goal of halving world greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

A draft prepared for the MEF meeting dropped any reference to this and aimed instead for agreement on the need to limit the average increase in global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times.

Developing nations, present in large numbers at the expanded G8 summit were more than 30 world leaders were invited including nine African nations, argue that they need to be able to consume more energy in order to end poverty among their populations.

Chinese President Hu Jintao pulled out at the last minute because of unrest in northwestern China in which 156 people have been killed. His departure may complicate climate change talks.

A packed first day is due to wrap up with talks on an array of international issues, including Iran's post-election violence and nuclear programme. However, these are unlikely to lead to any immediate action, such as a tightening of sanctions.

One area where officials said a breakthrough might be possible was trade. A draft communique suggested the G8 and "G5" developing nations would agree to conclude the stalled Doha round of trade talks in 2010.

Launched in 2001 to help poor nations prosper through trade, the talks have stumbled on proposed tariff and subsidy cuts.

Leaders will also discuss a U.S. proposal that rich nations commit $15 billion over several years for agricultural development in poor countries to ensure food supplies.