Some special messages to Obama and his fellow Americans, from some fellow human beings ...

Now, please read some of these seriously salient messages being sent from the wider world.



*(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

US Judge Ricardo Urbina Upsets Bombastic BushCo's Applecart

Judge orders Chinese Muslims freed from Gitmo

Chinese, Muslim, Islamofascist terrorists?

Well, well, well. We do declare.

Hands up who knew.

Did you?

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A federal judge has ordered the immediate release into the United States of 17 Chinese Muslims who have been held for several years in the U.S. military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

A U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina on Tuesday ordered the 17 detainees to appear in his Washington courtroom at 10 a.m. Friday and said he would hold a hearing next week to determine under what conditions they will be settled in the United States.

The government late Tuesday afternoon announced it would file papers shortly with an appeals court seeking an emergency stay to stop the judge's order in its tracks.

The detainees are ethnic Uighurs, from a mostly Muslim autonomous region in western China.

They have been in government custody for seven years and have been cleared for release for the past four years to any country willing to take them. No countries have volunteered.

The judge, visibly impatient, told government lawyers he wants no delays.

"There is a pressing need for them to be released," Urbina declared.

And, good old Judge Ricardo flatly refused to let the matter rest, even at that.

"I have issued an order. I do not want these people interfered with in any way," the judge said.

Read the rest of this (sorta semi-refreshing), report right here.

*(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

Olympics : China Caught Out Cheating?

Even through all the heavy makeup along with the absolute absence of any signs of her having hips, it should have been obvious at the outset, even to the most short sighted of us, that the cute little Chinese gymnast called He Kexin was quite clearly, merely a kid.

International Olympic Committee launches probe into He Kexin's age

The International Olympic Committee has ordered an investigation into mounting allegations that Chinese authorities covered up the true age of their gold-medal winning gymnastics star because she was too young to compete.

An IOC official told The Times that because of "discrepancies" that have come to light about the age of He Kexin, the host nation’s darling who won gold in both team and individual events, an official inquiry has been launched that could result in the gymnast being stripped of her medals.

The investigation was triggered as a US computer expert claimed yesterday to have uncovered Chinese government documents that he says prove she is only 14 - making her ineligible to compete in the Olympics - rather than 16, as officials in Beijing insist is her age.

(snip)

The IOC has been accused of deliberately ignoring the issue because it feared offending China.

Yet Giselle Davies, an IOC spokesperson, said tonight that because of troubling new developments, the committee had instructed the International Gymnastics Federation, the sport’s governing body, to investigate.

Read the rest of this sport report right here.

So, what we want to know now is whether or not both the US and the UK will soon be getting the medals they should have been given in the beginning?



(Cross posted at 'appletree')

Did You Hear the One About Bush in Bangkok?

And now for something completely different.



Let's all lighten up a little, eh?



Remember - laugh and the world laughs at with you.



So here's some of the jokes, folks.

Beijing, China, Olympic Games and Gordon Brown ...

*

Good for you, old el Gordo!

PM not attending Olympics opening

Prime Minister Gordon Brown will not attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, Downing Street says.

Read the rest of the report right here.



Beijing?



The capital city of the People's Republic of China?



Hosting the next Olympic Games?



What sort of sick sodding joke was this idiocy in the first place, anyway?

We say the entire sordid shower of self serving shysters on the Olympic committee who (so shamelessly), cast their votes for such stupidity at the outset, should be unceremoniously sacked - at the very least. And, sacked straight away - if not sooner.

Well, we'll tell you this for free, friends - they would be if we had our way.



*(Cross posted at appletree)

Can Great Britain's Greatest Athletes Be 'Commanded' To Kow-Tow To China?

*
I suck. He sucks. She sucks. You suck. They suck. We suck.

And so it goes, and goes, and goes.

Such statements seem commonplace nowadays, especially in the states. And while we freely confess that we can cuss, curse & swear as well as anyone can, we don't - and never did - have much time at all for those particular expressions.

However, there's always an exception to every rule.



Kow-towing, most certainly sodding does suck!

As does this shocking snippet of a sad state of current affairs news item published in today's 'Mail on Sunday'.

Britain kow tows to China as athletes are forced to sign no criticism contracts

British Olympic chiefs are to force athletes to sign a contract promising not to speak out about China's appalling human rights record – or face being banned from travelling to Beijing.

The move – which raises the spectre of the order given to the England football team to give a Nazi salute in Berlin in 1938 – immediately provoked a storm of protest.

The controversial clause has been inserted into athletes' contracts for the first time and forbids them from making any political comment about countries staging the Olympic Games.

(snip)

From the moment they sign up, the competitors – likely to include the Queen's granddaughter Zara Phillips and world record holder Paula Radcliffe – will be effectively gagged from commenting on China's politics, human rights abuses or illegal occupation of Tibet.

Prince Charles has already let it be known that he will not be going to China, even if he is invited by Games organisers.

His views on the Communist dictatorship are well known, after this newspaper revealed how he described China's leaders as “appalling old waxworks” in a journal written after he attended the handover of Hong Kong.

Read the rest of this sorry story, if you've a strong enough stomach.

Shame?

Sadly, it seems there's no such thing as far as the stupid shitheads at the British Olympic Association (BOA) are concerned.

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Russian-American War Games:The New Cold (World) War Has Already Begun ...

This amazing article by Professor Michel Chossudovsky is a cross post from The Centre for Research on Globalisation website.



New Cold War: Simultaneously, Russia and America Conduct Major War Games

by Michel Chossudovsky

There has been a virtual media blackout on the conduct of major military exercises by both Russia and the US. . Reminiscent of the Cold War, Russia and America are conducting major war games simultaneously.

The Russian Air Force will be conducting major military exercises over a large part of its territory from the 16th to the 30th of October. These Russian exercises coincide chronologically with the conduct of major US sponsored war games under Vigilant Shield 08, which are slated to take place from the 15th to the 20th of October. VS-08 was preceded by major naval exercises under Pacific Shield 07 hosted by Japan, involving the participation of Australia, France, New Zealand, Singapore, the UK, and the US.

President Vladimir Putin announced in August that Russia would be resuming long-range bomber flights over the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans for the first time since the breakup of the Soviet Union. (Associated Press, October 1, 2007). Moscow's resolve was in response to US-NATO threats directed against Russia including the militarization of Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

The US exercise code named Vigilant Shield 2008 (VS-08) is casually presented as an "anti-terrorist drill". While under the joint auspices of the Pentagon and the Department of Defense, US Northern Command in liaison with NORAD is in charge of the operation.

VS-08 includes a massive deployment of the US Air Force and Canada's Air Force. It resembles a war-time scenario with the deployment of bombers and fighter jets over the entire North American continent extending into the Arctic.

Meanwhile in the Pacific, military exercises are being held in Guam under the VS-08 imitative. Parallel US-Philippines sponsored war games are slated to commence in the Philippines archipelago on the 16th of October, "involving nearly 3,500 troops from specialized forces from the two countries."

In what visibly appears to be a confrontational scenario, the Russian war games commence one day after the launching of the US sponsored VS-08.
Russian strategic bombers Tu-160, Tu-95 and Tu-22M3, and Il-78 aerial tankers "will conduct flights over the Arctic region, the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, and the Black Sea, with simulated bombing raids and firing of cruise missiles at testing grounds in northern and southern Russia," Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky said." (RIA Novosti).

Part of these Russian war games will be conducted in the Arctic, within proximity of US and Canadian territory (Alaska and Canada's Arctic).

"Moscow announced in mid-August that regular patrol flights by strategic bombers had been resumed, and would continue on a permanent basis, with patrol areas including commercial shipping and economic production zones.
The U.S. administration expressed concern about the resumption of patrol flights by Russian strategic bombers.

"I think the rapid growth in Russian military spending definitely bears watching," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview with ABC News on October 14.

"And frankly, some of the efforts - for instance, Bear flights in areas that we haven't seen for a while - are really not helpful to security."

(RIA Novosti)

Over the last several months, Russia has been conducting warplane exercises around Alaska. In the course of last Summer, Russian bombers staged a number of exercises in what is described as "a buffer zone outside U.S. air space", within proximity of Alaska. According to a NORAd spokesman,
"U.S. and Canadian fighter jets, including F-15s, were dispatched each time to escort the Russian planes in the exercises, which ranged from two to six aircraft,...

VS-8 is based on a scenario of confrontation with Russia and China. In August, under the auspices of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Russia and China joined hands in the conduct of major war games. Code-named "Peace-Mission 2007", the exercises were held in the Volga region of Russia as well as in the Urumqi region of Western China.

Global Research Articles by Michel Chossudovsky

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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"Fings Ain't What They Used To Be," In America Any More ...

We sincerely believe it's a crying (as well as needless), shame that in today's United States shysters such as the fat cat shown are constantly supported so strongly -- whether knowingly or not ...




... by so many simple fellow citizens as shown below.

The world left the US behind

If you look at the issues being debated in the wider world, the US is not at the forefront of global debate on any of them - except terror and security

By Tim Watkin

As George Bush strolls into the leaders' meeting at Apec, I half expect to see him rubbing his eyes in a somewhat sleepy, surprised manner, like a bear coming out of hibernation.

I've just been out of the US for a fortnight, and returning to the States this past week I can't help but notice how cut-off and caught up in its own concerns this country is at the moment.

I keep thinking of Rip Van Winkle or the film While You Were Sleeping, where a character goes into a coma or long sleep and awakes to find the world a very different place. Except in this instance Bush is Van Winkle and the film title would be While You Were Iraqing.

This is Bush's seventh Apec meeting, so you'd expect him to be a comfortable and dominant player. Yet there's a sense everyone else has moved on, while he and his country are still stuck in the same place they've been for years.

Shocked? You shouldn't be. All the same, see some more.

Part of the problem is that the US media remains guilt-stricken about its mistakes before the invasion of Iraq - its failure to question the spurious WMD evidence, Rumsfeld's strategies and the overall rationale for war.

As some kind of penance they now seem to cover little else. The odd natural disaster aside, the only other issue getting any widespread play is the 2008 presidential election. The Sunday TV morning talk shows have given up debating current policy and just debate the campaign ad nauseum.

(snip)

In the past four years, America has taken its eye off the Pacific and China's growing influence to the extent that Bush this week has had to publicly deny that Apec has become a China summit.

While Bush spent US political capital in Iraq, China, India and Russia all regained status as leading nations in their own right, and others such as Brazil are staking their claim for a seat at the big table for the first time.(snip)

In the major world events of the moment - say North Korean negotiations or the Middle East peace process - America is either just one player among many or its influence is failing.

The changing tone was there for all to see at Friday's US-South Korea leaders' press conference. Close ally President Roh Moo-hyun was willing to press, even embarrass, Bush in public.

In previous years, with previous Presidents, he wouldn't have dared. These days, though, the US doesn't carry the same clout or demand the same respect.

The polite analysis is that Iraq has put the US in a reflective mood, reappraising its own assumptions about itself. Less politely, you could say it's getting horribly out of touch and behind the times.

The world is moving on without America.

When you're ready for reading the rest of this ultra-revealing report, just hit this link.

Russia, China And Several Asian States Hold Joint Military Exercises ...

Thus sayeth Russia's President Putin.

"We have decided to restore flights by Russian strategic aviation on a permanent basis," Mr Putin told reporters at joint military exercises with China and four Central Asian states in Russia's Ural mountains.

The BBC reports today:

Russia restarts Cold War patrols

Russia is currently rebuilding its armed forces

Russia is resuming a Soviet-era practice of sending its bomber aircraft on long-range flights, President Vladimir Putin has said.

Mr Putin said the move to resume the flights permanently after a 15-year suspension was in response to security threats posed by other military powers.

He said 14 bombers had taken off from Russian airfields early on Friday.

The move came a week after Russian bombers flew within a few hundred miles of the US Pacific island of Guam.

A few days ago Moscow said its strategic bombers had begun exercises over the North Pole.

(snip)

"Flights by other countries' strategic aircraft continue and this creates certain problems for ensuring the security of the Russian Federation," he [Putin] said.

Remember this?

In last week's incident near Guam, the Russian pilots "exchanged smiles" with US fighter pilots who scrambled to track them, a Russian general said.

The US military confirmed the presence of the Russian bombers near Guam, home to a large US base.

And remember this?

Last month two Tupolev 95 aircraft - dubbed "bears" according to their Nato code-name - strayed south from their normal patrol pattern off the Norwegian coast and headed towards Scotland. Two RAF Tornado fighters were sent up to meet them.

And now we learn this.

Russian bombers have also recently flown close to US airspace over the Arctic Ocean near Alaska.

Seems it isn't only submarines Russia's sending sniffing round the Polar Region, eh?

Read the rest of this Ruski related report right here.

US Treasury: China's Preemptive Financial Nuke Option ...

Sooner or later something was going to have to give.

Those in the know and those with the know-how have been screaming about something like this slowly sneaking up on the USA for a long, long time.

One could quite reasonably call it the ultimate 'Made in China' product.

The inscrutable, far eastern, financial nuke.

China threatens to trigger US dollar crash

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Daily Telegraph - 08/08/2007

The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US Treasury bonds if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.

(snip)

China threatens to trigger US dollar crash

Henry Paulson, the US Treasury secretary, met with Chinese president Hu Jintao in Beijing last week

Two Chinese officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning, for the first time, that Beijing may use its $1,330bn (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress. Shifts in Chinese policy are often announced through key think tanks and academies.

Described as China's "nuclear option" in the state media, such action could trigger a dollar crash at a time when the US currency is breaking down through historic support levels.

(snip)

It is estimated that China holds more than $900bn in a mix of US bonds.

(snip)

He Fan, an official at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, went further yesterday, letting it be known that Beijing had the power to set off a dollar collapse, if it chose to do so.

"China has accumulated a large sum of US dollars. Such a big sum, of which a considerable portion is in US Treasury bonds, contributes a great deal to maintaining the position of the dollar as a reserve currency," he told China Daily.

None of us need be Wall Street whiz-kids before being able to figure out for ourselves precisely what the 'big picture' here is all about.

Nonetheless, read the rest of this revealing British press report right here.

Buddy, can you spare a dime?

*