The new language of diplomacy: this bombing thingy is well out of order
On the other hand, I rather warmed to Mr Bush’s gangsta rap summary of the crisis in Lebanon. “You see, the thing is,” he said, alluding to Russia’s influence in the area, “what they need to do is to get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it’s over.” He’s right, of course. Why has no one else thought of it before? If only everyone spoke their mind so clearly, things might get done rather more quickly than the quagmire that is modern diplomacy. I think I prefer Mr Bush’s shorthand version of world affairs than listening to the Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, burying herself in obfuscation on BBC radio yesterday as she attempted to avoid criticising Israeli tactics. It was like being wrapped in blancmange.

Hezbollah, Hamas and Israel: Everything You Need To Know ALEXANDER COCKBURN
I hope you’ve enjoyed these little excursions into history, even though history is dangerous, which is why the US press gives it a wide birth. But even without the benefit of historical instruction, a majority of Americans in CNN’s instant poll –- about 55 per cent out of 800,000 as of midday, July 19 -- don’t like what Israel is up to.

Feds sharpen secret tools for data mining
"There's a tendency with all of these systems to lead with terrorism and then find other applications," Rotenberg says.

Vegas Makes It Crime To Feed Homeless People
The Las Vegas City Council unanimously passed a law, which went into effect Thursday, making it a crime to feed the homeless at city parks. It carries a maximum penalty of $1,000 and six months in jail.

Rates on 30-year mortgages are highest since 2002
Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, says rates on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages increased to a nationwide average of 6.80%, from 6.74% last week.
That's the highest they've been since they stood at 6.81% the week of May 24, 2002.

Quick Overview

• China today raised required reserve ratio on banks (up 0.5 point to 8.5%) for the second time in 2 months in an attempt to slow bank lending and the economy. That action followed the +11.3% Chinese Q2 GDP report.
  
  

• UK Q2 GDP rose +0.8% QoQ +3.2% YoY.
  
  

• Some 100,000 Italian bondholders will file a lawsuit against Argentina, looking for repayment of $5.5 billion in bonds that defaulted in early 2002
  
  

• Canada's consumer price index was down 0.2% in June -- up 2.5% YoY.
  
  

• The USDA said there were 10.872 million head of cattle on feed on July 1st, up 4.6% YoY -- more than expected. June placements were up 10.3% YoY, and marketing’s were up 5.8%.
  

• The USDA said there were 52.5 million pounds of frozen pork bellies in cold storage on June 30th, down 26% YoY.
  

• Frozen pork totaled 409 million pounds, down 17% YoY.
  

• The USDA said there were 1.105 billion pounds of frozen orange juice concentrate in cold storage on June 30th, down 29% YoY.
  
  

Quick Overview

• The Labor Department said that jobless claims were down 30,000 last week to 304,000, the lowest in six weeks.
  

• The Conference Board's index of leading indicators was up 0.1% to 138.1 in June.
  

• The Philadelphia Federal Reserve's regional index of factory activity dropped from 13.1 to 6.0 in July, the lowest since January.
  
  

• The OECD advised the Bank of Japan to be careful about raising interest rates. The report said that Japan's CPI should rise +1% before the BOJ increases interest rates (the June CPI was up only +0.1% YoY). The OECD predicted Japanese GDP growth at +2.8% in 2006 and +2.2% in 2007.
  
  

• The Agriculture Department is scaling back its testing program for mad cow disease to about 110 tests a day from about 1000 test a day. Ag Secretary Mike Johanns said there is little justification for the current level.
  
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said that underground supplies of natural gas were up 59 billion cubic feet to 2.763 trillion cubic feet.
  
  

• Canada's wholesale sales totaled C$41.8 billion in May, up 0.9% on the month and up 6.6% YoY.

Quick Overview

• The Labor Department said that jobless claims were down 30,000 last week to 304,000, the lowest in six weeks.
  

• The Conference Board's index of leading indicators was up 0.1% to 138.1 in June.
  

• The Philadelphia Federal Reserve's regional index of factory activity dropped from 13.1 to 6.0 in July, the lowest since January.
  
  

• The OECD advised the Bank of Japan to be careful about raising interest rates. The report said that Japan's CPI should rise +1% before the BOJ increases interest rates (the June CPI was up only +0.1% YoY). The OECD predicted Japanese GDP growth at +2.8% in 2006 and +2.2% in 2007.
  
  

• The Agriculture Department is scaling back its testing program for mad cow disease to about 110 tests a day from about 1000 test a day. Ag Secretary Mike Johanns said there is little justification for the current level.
  
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said that underground supplies of natural gas were up 59 billion cubic feet to 2.763 trillion cubic feet.
  
  

• Canada's wholesale sales totaled C$41.8 billion in May, up 0.9% on the month and up 6.6% YoY.

Turkey risks US anger over plan to attack Kurds

Groups urge US passage of law aimed at global online free speech

Price tag to rebuild Iraq rises by $50b

Quick Overview

• Fed Chairman Bernanke said he saw inflation excluding food and energy moderating in coming quarters. The Fed is now forecasting inflation for 2007 at 2.0-2.25% up from its earlier forecast of 1.75%-2.0%.
  
  

• U.S. Consumer prices increased a moderate 0.2% in June, the smallest gain in four months, but core inflation rose by 0.3% for a fourth straight month.
  
  

• New housing starts fell 5.3% in June, the Commerce Department said.
  
  

• Polands industrial production rose by 13.8 pct YoY in June.
  
  

• The Japanese government in its July report today dropped its mention of "deflation" and instead said that consumer prices have been rising and "price trends warrant a close watch”.
  
  

• Canada's composite index of leading indicators was up 0.2% in June.
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said that:
  Supplies of crude oil were up 200,000 barrels to 335.5 million barrels.
  Supplies of unleaded gasoline were up 1.5 million barrels
  Supplies of heating oil were up 2.4 million barrels.
  The Department of Energy said YoY in the last four weeks gasoline demand was up 1.9% and distillate demand was up 4.8%.
  

• The U.K. is considering adopting carbon dioxide emission allocations for individuals who could use or trade their allowances with a CO2 credit card, the Environment Secretary said.
  
  

Tiny wireless memory chip debuts
A chip the size of a grain of rice that can store 100 pages of text and swaps data via wireless has been developed by Hewlett-Packard.

The Summer of 1914
If Israel does attack Iran, the "summer of 1914" analogy may play itself out, catastrophically for the United States. As I have warned many times, war with Iran (Iran has publicly stated it would regard an Israeli attack as an attack by the U.S. also) could easily cost America the army it now has deployed in Iraq. It would almost certainly send shock waves through an already fragile world economy, potentially bringing that house of cards down. A Bush administration that has sneered at "stability" could find out just how high the price of instability can be.

Marathon Dancing
Those who value both peace and liberty should see the death and destruction of war as a signal to withdraw one’s support from all political systems, regardless of who is running them, or under what rationale, or the duration of their respective claims upon the bodies and souls of people.

While Bush and Blair fumble, Beirut burns
Exactly what mission has been accomplished by George W. Bush, US president, and his super-loyal sidekick, Tony Blair, the British prime minister?

United States to Israel: you have one more week to blast Hizbullah
Bush 'gave green light' for limited attack, say Israeli and UK sources

Hizbullah winning over Arab street That gap, fed by support for Palestinians, hatred of Israel, and anger at its close alliance with America, is already being exploited by the region's Islamist movements, turning TV images of dead civilians into political opposition to their own regimes. In particular, the peace deals signed by Egypt and Jordan with Israel make these governments less popular with their people.

Quick Overview

• The producer price index rose 0.5% in June and up 4.9% YoY, more than expected, while the "core" PPI rate excluding food and energy rose 0.2%.
  
  

• The Treasury Department said that foreign buys of long-term U.S. securities totaled $88.8 billion in May -- U.S. purchases of foreign securities totaled $19.2 billion.
  

• YoY Consumer prices in the U.K. were up 2.5% in June.
  

• Japan's index of services, increased 0.5% in May, stronger than expected.
  

• Chinese annual growth surged to 11.3 percent in the second quarter, bounding ahead at the fastest pace since the mid1990s on the back of strong investment and exports, the government said on Tuesday.
  
  

• Japan's economy -- already in its second-longest growth cycle of the postwar era -- will likely keep recovering with the end of deflation in sight, the government said in an economic white paper on Tuesday.

Is the USA Bankrupt?
Or, abandoning the Oxford English Dictionary for Ray Charles, are Americans "busted, broke...no bread...I mean like nuthin'?"

Attention Deficit Americans Are Being Misled to War

Israel’s over-reactions are calculated to start a wider war. Israel has asserted that the two soldiers captured by Hizbollah are being held in Iran. Israel blames Syria for Hizbollah’s acts. Both Israel and its neoconsevative allies in the Bush government blame Iran and Syria for "attacks on Israel" by Hamas and Hizbollah. No one, least of all Bush, blames Israel’s Palestinian policy.

Déjà Vu in Lebanon

Twenty-four years later, the Bush Administration and Israel have provided the world – and this writer – a remarkable feeling of déjà vu as Israeli forces ravage Lebanon and threaten to once again invade its southern portion. Once again, a president totally ignorant of Mideast realities, a craven US Congress, and an incompetent secretary of state have created a disaster in Lebanon.

Ford buyouts speed up
24,000 hourly workers will be gone by end of 2007

Super scandal may be brewing Alan Greenspan and his successor at the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, call this "systemic risk," a nice way of saying that a mortgage giant meltdown, probably caused by rapid swings in interest rates, threatens the international banking system.

Israeli strikes on Lebanon kill 42
..raising the death toll since Israel's offensive to 204, all but 14 of them civilian.

Quick Overview

• U.S. Industrial production was up 0.8% in June, stronger than expected.
  

• The New York Federal Reserve's regional index of business activity dropped from 29.0 to 15.6 in July, weaker than expected.
  
  

• India's merchandise exports rose 25.1% in June to $9.97 billion, prompting the government to raise its export target for 2007 to $126 billion.
  
  

• New Zealand's CPI rose 4.0% YoY-- the highest level for 16 years.
  
  

• The German newspaper Die Welt reported Monday that Europe's biggest computer maker, Fujitsu-Siemens, wants to go back to the 40-hour work week to save on production costs and keep the plants going, "If we respect the 35-hour week, we will not be able to maintain our factories at Augsburg and Soemmerda. " Fujitsu-Siemens chief executive Bernd Bischoff said.
  
  
  

• F.O. Licht predicted on Thursday that world sugar production will total 149.2 million tons during the 2005-2006 period, an increase of more than seven million tons compared to the previous harvest.
  
  

• OPEC expects world oil demand to average 84.6 million barrels a day in 2006 and 85.9 million barrels a day in 2007.
  
  
  
  
  
  

Europe can tell Israel how punishing civilians backfires
In 1949, Europeans spearheaded an international move to outlaw collective punishment. This came after two world wars in which they had witnessed whole towns and villages razed and civilians executed, conscripted for slave labour or deliberately made homeless. To break with this past, the Fourth Geneva Convention outlawed collective punishment and reprisals against non-combatants. How far away this all seems today. First in Gaza and now in southern Lebanon, the Israeli army has abandoned Geneva's restraints, retaliating against the kidnapping of its soldiers by blowing up power plants, oil refineries, airports and roads.

What's Really Going on in Lebanon Eric Margolis

Williams Confronts Kristol: ‘You Just Want War, War, War, And You Want Us In More War’

The Bush agenda comes into focus
It is only now, nearly five years after Sept. 11, that the full picture of the Bush administration's response to the terror attacks is becoming clear. Much of it, we can see now, had far less to do with fighting Osama bin Laden than with expanding presidential power.

Right-wing media divided: Is U.S. now in World War III, IV, or V?

Condi says Iraq has nothing to do with the instability in the Middle East: That’s Gross

US 'could be going bankrupt'
A ballooning budget deficit and a pensions and welfare timebomb could send the economic superpower into insolvency, according to research by Professor Laurence Kotlikoff for the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, a leading constituent of the US Federal Reserve.

A Beautiful Friendship?
Thanks to the work of the lobby and its allies, Israel gets more direct foreign aid -- about $3 billion a year -- than any other nation. There's a file cabinet somewhere in the State Department full of memoranda of understanding on military, diplomatic and economic affairs. Israel gets treated like a NATO member when it comes to military matters and like Canada or Mexico when it comes to free trade. There's an annual calendar full of meetings of joint strategic task forces and other collaborative sessions. And there's a presidential pledge, re-avowed by Bush in the East Room, that the United States will come to Israel's aid in the event of attack.

Another Stab at the Truth
Polls show that a majority of Americans believe President Bush and his associates intentionally misled the public in making their case for war. It's a terribly serious charge, if true. In fact, it's hard to imagine a more serious charge against a president.

Putin Tells Bush Russia Doesn't Need a Democracy Like Iraq's
Bush held up Iraq today as a model of democracy for Russia to follow. Russian President Vladimir Putin was quick to say he wasn't interested.

• U.S. Retail sales were down 0.1% in June, more than expected. Excluding autos, sales were up 0.3%.
  

• U.S. business sales were up 1.4% in May and up 8.8% YoY
  

• The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index fell from 84.9 to 83.0 in July, morer than expected.
  

• Japan's central bank raised interest rates for the first time in six years on Friday, lifting its key rate to 0.25 percent from zero and affirming the end of a long era of deflation and economic stagnation.
  

• Canada's manufacturing shipments were up 0.3% in May.
  

• The National Association of Oilseed Processors said the U.S. crushed 131.3 million bushels of soybeans in June, more than expected.
  

• Canada confirmed its seventh case of mad cow disease.
  

• Sao Paulo's industry association reduced the estimate of Brazil's sugar crop to 370 million tons.

Most Americans plan to vote for Democrats
..the latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that Americans by an almost 3-to-1 margin hold the GOP-controlled Congress in low regard and profess a desire to see Democrats wrest control after a dozen years of Republican rule.

Despite Hezbollah's Ties to Iran and Syria, It Also Acts Alone
The Bush administration was quick to pin responsibility on Iran and Syria when Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers this week. Yet those countries may not have specifically planned and ordered the raid that has brought the Middle East to the edge of war, U.S. officials and terrorism experts say.

Updates will resume July 14th.

Quick Overview

• The U.S. Labor Department reported the unemployment rate unchanged at 4.6% in June with an increase in non-farm payrolls of 121,000, less than expected.
  

• Canada's unemployment rate remained at 6.1% in June.

• Japan's increased its estimate of 2006-2007 GDP growth from 1.9% to 2.1%. Industrial production was up 1.5% in May, more than expected.
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said that underground supplies of natural gas were up 73 billion cubic feet to 2.615 trillion cubic feet.
  

Noron with Cindy Sheehan

The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human: Aldous Huxley

Quick Overview

• Initial jobless claims slipped by 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 313,000 in the week ending July 1, the Labor Department said.
  
  

• The National Association of Realtors reported its May index for pending sales of existing homes rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.3% to 113.4 from April's 111.9.
  
  

• The Institute for Supply Management's non-manufacturing index was 57.0 down from 60.1 in May (50 and above point to expanding activity)
  
  

• New Zealand's unemployment rate was 3.9% in the first quarter of 2006.
  

• The Bank of Indonesia cut its key interest rate from 12.50% to 12.25%.
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said that:
  Supplies of crude oil were down 2.4 million barrels to 341.3 million barrels.
  Supplies of unleaded gasoline were up 700,000 barrels
  Supplies of heating oil supplies were up 600,000 barrels.
  Over the past four weeks, gasoline demand is up 1.4% YoY
  

Bush told Cheney to discredit diplomat critical of Iraq policy
No instruction to out CIA agent, says president

Effect of climate change on oceans gaining attention Two decades ago, when Dr. Richard Feely at the Seattle laboratories of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported his concerns about atmospheric carbon dioxide significantly altering the chemistry of the oceans, his findings were largely ignored.

The War in Afghanistan Is Only the Beginning Afghans know one day Americans and other foreigners will go home, just as did the Russians, British and Alexander’s Greeks.

To Be or Not To Be a State? There is, however, another way out for Hamas. It can call and raise Washington’s and Tel Aviv's bets. How? By voting to dissolve the Palestinian Authority. Ending the PA would dump the Palestinian territories and their inhabitants right back in Israel’s lap. Under international law, as the occupying power, Israel would be responsible for everything in the territories: security, human services, utilities and infrastructure, the economy, the whole megillah (oy!). Israel could try to restore the PA in cooperation with Fatah, but if Fatah joined Israel in doing so, it would destroy what legitimacy it has left. Hamas could meanwhile return to a 4GW war against Israel, unencumbered with the dubious assets of a state, and with lots more targets as Israel attempted to run the Palestinian Territories itself.

Historic India-China link to open China and India are due to open a historic trade route on Thursday that has been closed for 44 years.

Cheaper US housing overshadows world economy: Soros
Last year, he said, such activity in the U.S. real estate market provided a stimulus of around $450 billion to the economy, but the housing boom is slowing.

Quick Overview

• U.S. Consumer confidence rose in the latest week, bolstered by moderating gasoline prices, ABC News and the Washington Post said on Wednesday.
  

• U.S. Factory orders were up 0.7% in May, more than expected. Excluding transport, factory orders were up 1.2%.
  

• YoY retail sales in the Euro zone increased 0.8% in May.
  

• YoY Chile's economy grew 6.1 percent in May.
  

• Canada confirmed it's sixth case of mad cow disease.
  

Trade Deal Looks More Like a Distant Dream

Bank of Japan said to raise interest rate
The Bank of Japan will raise a key interest rate to 0.25 percent from zero next week, a news report said Tuesday, amid conflicting signals from government officials over the wisdom of such a move.