china has 'canceled US credit card' from afp: China, wary of the troubled US economy, has already "canceled America's credit card" by cutting down purchases of debt, a US congressman said Thursday. China has the world's largest foreign reserves, believed to be mostly in dollars, along with around 800 billion dollars in US Treasury bonds, more than any other country. But Treasury Department data shows that investors in China have sharply curtailed their purchases of bonds in January and February. Representative Mark Kirk, a member of the House Appropriations Committee and co-chair of a group of lawmakers promoting relations with Beijing [and council on foreign relations member], said China had "very legitimate" concerns about its investments.
US firms offshore 22,000 'green' jobs to india from raw story: Barack Obama and his green guru, Van Jones, have a green-collar job plan that they believe will solve the two biggest crises of our time: 5 million new green-collar jobs will directly stimulate the economy and will contribute to a more sustainable future in the face of coming climate change. But the 2009 Green Outsourcing Report, an annual industry study conducted by Brown-Wilson Group, found that green technology jobs are being created faster in India than in the US since Obama took office. The report, which was released two weeks ago, surveyed 4,000 businesses around the world, including Xerox, Accenture, IBM Global, CSC, Capgemini, Oracle, HP/ ED S, Aramark, SITEL and Perot. Doug Brown, co-author of the Green Outsourcing Report, told The New Indian Express, “We see the (green job offshoring) trend increasing. There are few suppliers who match credentials and outcomes of Indian firms.”
obama team writes off $7b taxpayers loaned chrysler from raw story: As part of the company’s bankruptcy filing, Chrysler LLC will not repay US taxpayers more than $7 billion it received as part of the company’s bailout earlier this year. Instead, the US will get an 8% ownership in a firm whose value continues to deteriorate by the day. The detail was buried in Chrysler’s bankruptcy filings last week, and overlooked until today. A senior Obama official confirmed the news to CNN. The Obama Administration’s Treasury Department has agreed to give up the $4 billion “bridge loan” extended by the Bush adminstration, a $300 million fee on the loan, and another $3.2 billion the Obama administration agreed to shell out — last week.
economic casualties pile into tent cities from usa today: Jim Marshall recalls everything about that beautiful fall day. The temperature was about 70 degrees on Nov. 19, the sky was "totally blue," and the laughter from a martini bar drifted into the St. Petersburg park where Marshall, 39, sat contemplating his first day of homelessness. "I was thinking, 'That was me at one point,'" he says of the revelers. "Now I'm thinking, 'Where am I going to sleep tonight? Where do I eat? Where do I shower?'" The unemployed Detroit autoworker moved to Florida last year hoping he'd have better luck finding a job. He didn't, and he spent three months sleeping on sidewalks before landing in a tent city in Pinellas County, north of St. Petersburg, on Feb. 26.
Marshall is among a growing number of the economic homeless, a term for those newly displaced by layoffs, foreclosures or other financial troubles caused by the recession. They differ from the chronic homeless, the longtime street residents who often suffer from mental illness, drug abuse or alcoholism. For the economic homeless, the American ideal that education and hard work lead to a comfortable middle-class life has slipped out of reach. They're packing into motels, parking lots and tent cities, alternately distressed and hopeful, searching for work and praying their fortunes will change. "My parents always taught me to work hard in school, graduate high school, go to college, get a degree and you'll do fine. You'll do better than your parents' generation," Marshall says. "I did all those things... For a while, I did have that good life, but nowadays that's not the reality."
gaza residents: idf troops posing as hamas men from haaretz: The testimonies of Gaza Strip residents are revealing new details about the Israel Defense Forces’ mode of operation there. In the past two days, Beit Lahia residents forced from their homes said soldiers were posing as members of Hamas’ armed wing while advancing on the ground. The daily pauses in bombing allow Gazans to meet with the displaced - most of whom are housed in an UNRWA school - and hear their stories. Gaza resident S. told Haaretz he heard several people say they saw armed men wearing the uniforms and symbols of the Iz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, who “called out to each other in Arabic, as if they had caught a collaborator, and then, with the element of surprise, went into the houses.” A Gaza radio station warned that troops posing as locals were driving a vehicle normally used by paramedics. Residents said the radio broadcaster listed the vehicle’s license plate number and color.
israel recruits army of bloggers to troll antiwar websites from paul joseph watson: Israel has announced that it is setting up a network of bloggers to combat websites deemed “problematic” by the Zionist state, presumably to propagandize about the necessity of killing babies and infants in the name of self-defense. Israel’s global reputation for being the new Nazis was already firmly established, but the ceaseless and indiscriminate bombing of Gaza, labeled a war crime by international observers, has hardened opinion against the country and this has manifested itself nowhere more than the world wide web. Israel’s response will be to flood the Internet with PR agents who will attempt to create a phony consensus that the Zionist state’s barbarian actions are justifiable.
The crowd completely filled the available space and the overflow were provided with television coverage in the basement of the First Unitarian Church where she was speaking...
This was an enlightening presentation, but it did so by drawing together many ideas and common insights lying loose in the minds of the audience and directed them laser-like, to obvious conclusions. She weaves a fabric from many threads available to all who dig beneath the veneer of Corporate Media complicity in the social engineering which passes for political and religious belief systems.
naomi klein speaking in portland (26.2 MP3) related: naomi klein on 'presswatch' from kboo: Naomi Klein discusses imperialism, torture, and the Chicago School of predatory economists with Theresa Mitchell. Preceded by a discussion of the current propaganda preparing the public for war with Iran in the Spring.
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from kenny's sideshow: The good news is that for the first time in years an unconstitutional police state law is 'shot down.' At least for the time being. The bad news is that Patriot Act extension failed because of a procedural move that required a two-thirds majority that fell short with 277 voting yes and 148 voting no. Which means that the majority of Congress are still traitors who don't give a flip about our rights and who remain shills for the lies of the 'war on terror.' Some are predicting the bill will return to the House floor for a regular vote that would only require a simple majority to pass. Obama, doing his best George W. Bush impression, wanted the extension to go through December 2013. A Republican sponsored the extension until December 2011. Most democrats voted no, all repubs but 26 voted yes. That's a crazy mix even for the false left/right paradigm.
