Bush 'kept Blair in the dark over Iraq' An explosive new book claims that Tony Blair pleaded in vain with George Bush to share vital combat intelligence about the Iraq war.

Congress Adds Internet Gambling Ban To U.S. Port Security Bill
Lawmakers added Internet gambling prohibitions at the last minute as they were finishing legislation on increasing security at U.S. ports. They connected unrelated measures to try to get approval, according to sources.

World finance watchdogs focus on opaque derivatives market
The world's three most powerful financial regulators want to tighten up derivatives markets, where explosive growth in recent times has sparked fears of a potential financial disaster.
Officials from Britain's Financial Services Authority, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the US Securities and Exchange Commission warn that countries must join forces to help contain risks posed by the rapid global expansion of derivatives.

Top Republicans accused of cover-up over sex scandal
Within hours of the departure of Mark Foley, a lawmaker from the Palm Beach area dogged for years by rumours about his sexuality, the party of "family values" turned on itself in an unseemly sequence of
denials, accusations and counter-accusations in which the party's top leaders appeared frantic to save their own political skins.

Detainee bill lifts Bush's power to new heights
President now has legal authority even courts can't challenge
"The president walked away with a lot more than most people thought," Ackerman said. He said the bill "further entrenches presidential power" and allows the administration to declare even a U.S. citizen an unlawful combatant subject to indefinite detention. "And it's not only about these prisoners," Ackerman said. "If Congress can strip courts of jurisdiction over cases because it fears their outcome, judicial independence is threatened."

Benjamin Franklin's prescient warning should give us pause: "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security."

Swiss plan tunnel under Strait of Gibraltar
The Swiss Lombardi engineering firm has won the contract to design a railway tunnel between Europe and Africa running under the Strait of Gibraltar.

G.O.P. Leaders Knew in Late ’05 of E-Mail
Top House Republicans knew for months about e-mail traffic between Representative Mark Foley and a former teenage page, but kept the matter secret and allowed Mr. Foley to remain head of a Congressional caucus on children’s issues, Republican lawmakers said Saturday.

White House on a Rampage Against the Constitution RALPH NADER
So long as the lawyers and their bar associations in America do not challenge the advancing dictatorial powers of George W. Bush, so long as citizen groups, labor unions and libertarians, conservatives and liberals avoid uniting together, these constitutional crimes against due process, probable cause, habeas corpus, together with torture and indefinite imprisonment at the whim of the Executive branch, will worsen and erode American jurisprudence with serious consequences for both the nation's security and its liberties.

Remember that telling thought by the British Parliamentarian, Edmund Burke, at the time of the American Revolution: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

Rounding Up U.S. Citizens
Because the bill was adopted with lightning speed, barely anyone noticed that it empowers Bush to declare not just aliens, but also U.S. citizens, "unlawful enemy combatants."
Bush & Co. has portrayed the bill as a tough way to deal with aliens to protect us against terrorism. Frightened they might lose their majority in Congress in the November elections, the Republicans rammed the bill through Congress with little substantive debate.

Benjamin Franklin's prescient warning should give us pause: "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security."

Bush faces wave of challenges to terror law
"The fact that they are denying the right of habeas corpus is so unlawful and unconstitutional that it throws us back to before King John and the Magna Carta," said Michael Ratner, president of the Centre for Constitutional Rights"

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety: Benjamin Franklin

The Blind Leading the Willing
A compromise between those who don't care and those who don't want to know.
By Dahlia Lithwick
We've reached a defining moment in our democracy when our elected officials are celebrating their own blind ignorance as a means of keeping the rest of us blindly ignorant as well.

The Antifederalists Were Right
September 27 marks the anniversary of the publication of the first of the Antifederalist Papers in 1789. The Antifederalists were opponents of ratifying the US Constitution. They feared that it would create an overbearing central government, while the Constitution's proponents promised that this would not happen. As the losers in that debate, they are largely overlooked today. But that does not mean they were wrong or that we are not indebted to them.

Quick Overview

• U.S. Personal incomes were up 0.3% in August while consumer spending was up 0.1%.
  

• The U.S. core rate of personal consumption expenditures, was up 2.5% YoY.

• The Chicago Purchasing Managers' index increased from 57.1 to 62.1 in September, more than expected
  

• The University of Michigan's index of consumer sentiment increased from 82.0 to 85.4 in September, more than expected.
  

• Canada's GDP was up 0.2% in July and up 2.5% YoY.
  

• Consumer prices in Tokyo were up 0.4% YoY. In all of Japan, consumer prices were up 0.9% YoY.
  Japan's unemployment rate was unchanged in August at 4.1%.
  

• Consumer prices in the Euro zone were up 1.8% in September YoY,
  

• New Zealand's GDP was up 0.5% in the second quarter and up 1.9% YoY
  
  

• The USDA said that, on September 1st, there were:
  1.97 billion bushels of corn in storage, down 7% YoY
  449 million bushels of soybeans in storage, up 75% YoY -- the most since 1986.
  1.74 billion bushels of wheat in storage, down 9% YoY.
  The USDA estimates 2006-2007 U.S. wheat production at 1.81 billion bushels, a bit more than expected.
  

• The USDA said there were 62.7 million hogs in inventory on September 1st, up 1.4% YoY. Hogs kept for breeding were up 1.8% YoY.
  
  

• It's getting hard to grow oranges in the Sunshine State. Months long droughts are broken by nasty hurricane seasons. Three diseases that kill and damage citrus trees and fruit continue to spread.
  
  
  

Bank faulted over data transfers to U.S
The Belgian banking consortium Swift breached European privacy rules when it aided the U.S. anti-terrorism program by providing confidential information about money transfers, Belgium's privacy protection commission concluded Thursday.
"It has to be seen as a gross miscalculation by Swift that it has, for years, secretly and systematically transferred massive amounts of personal data for surveillance without effective and clear legal basis and independent controls in line with Belgian and European law," the report said

Ashcroft Is Denied Immunity in Case A federal judge in Idaho has ruled that former attorney general John D. Ashcroft can be held personally responsible for the wrongful detention of a U.S. citizen arrested as a "material witness" in a terrorism case.

Deficit comes in below projections, thanks to `off-budget' borrowing The U.S. government closes the books on fiscal 2006 Saturday, and politicians are likely to trumpet that the federal deficit came in almost $60 billion below projections. Problem is, they won't be using the same math you use.

Senate OKs detainee interrogation bill
"The habeas corpus language in this bill is as legally abusive of rights guaranteed in the Constitution as the actions at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and secret prisons that were physically abusive of detainees," said Sen. Carl Levin, the top Democrat on the Armed Services panel.

Something bad is about to happen. Only you can stop it, and the clock is ticking.

We hate to sound apocalyptic. We loathe the politics of fear (even if it works!). So we're not looking to scare you.

But you need to know that the end is near for "archaic" ideas like . . .
* the right to security in your home and papers
* the right to be free from unreasonable searches
* the safety net of judicial warrant requirements
* the right to a trial by a jury of your peers in a system of due process
* reasonable bail and recourse for false arrest
* protection from cruel and unusual punishment

Those were great ideals for "dead white men," but apparently your children won't need them anymore. Because, you know, the politicians need to protect you and your children from terrorism.

But the politicians need to get a grip, and a sense of proportion. You don't turn the country upside down for light and transient causes. You're more likely to die in your car, or be struck by lightening, than be harmed by terrorism.
We don't fret about such risks, so why are destroying American freedom in the name of an even smaller risk?

A bill is about to pass the House. It permits unlimited spying on your internet usage and telecommunications, the Fourth Amendment be damned. For brevity, I'll call it the "Spying on Americans Act," or SPA for short.The SPA is likely to pass the Senate too, but there we have a chance to stop it.

Under SPA . . .
* The President can spy on you without a warrant
* You'll never learn that his spys have done so, until they use the information against you (legally or not)
* Your phone and internet providers can't refuse to provide information about you * Or tell you they've done so after the fact

The result will be more warrantless searches than in all of U.S. history. And if that history is any guide, it's only a matter of time before this power is used for reasons other than "national security."

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Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety: Benjamin Franklin

Quick Overview

• The Dow-Jones industrial average briefly traded above its record high close set on Jan. 14, 2000.
  

• U.S. corporate profits were up 0.3% in the second quarter.
  

• The U.S. Commerce Department estimates US GDP growth in the second quarter at of 2.6%, down from the previous estimate of 2.9%. YoY GDP was up 3.5%.
  

• Copper demand growth in China, the world's biggest consumer of the metal, may slow to 5.6 percent this year, as record prices prompt makers of cables, wires and air-conditioners to switch to cheaper substitutes. Consumption may be 3.8 million metric tons, versus 3.86 million tons and last year's growth of 9 percent.
  

• The U.S. Labor Department said that jobless claims were down 6,000 last week to 316,000.
  

• The International Grains Council lowered global wheat production by 5 million tons to 588 million tons.
  

• AWB Ltd. lowered the estimate of Australia's wheat crop from 16.4 million tons to 13.5 million, down from 25.1 million tons last year. Hot and dry conditions have hurt this year's crop.
  
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said that underground supplies of natural gas rose 77 billion cubic feet to 3.254 trillion cubic feet. Supplies are up 13% YoY.
  

• German September unemployment fell 17,000 to 4.43 million, the fifth drop in the past six months.
  

• Retail sales in Japan increased 2.0% in August, more than expected.
  

• France's GDP increased 1.2% in the second quarter, the best quarterly performance in over five years.
  

• Worker productivity in the U.K. increased 1.8%.
  

• The Chinese Yuan rose to a new 12-3/4-year high at 7.8957 Yuan/USD

Quick Overview

• U.S. Durable goods orders were down 0.5% in August, weaker than expected. In July, orders were revised lower, from a 2.4% to a 2.7% decline.
  

• U.S New home sales were up 4.1% MoM. New home inventory dropped from 7.0 to 6.6 months. YoY new home sales are down 16%.
  

• The Mortgage Bankers Association said that YoY mortgage applications were down 21% last week.
  
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said that:
  Supplies of crude oil supplies were down 100,000 barrels to 324.8 million barrels.
  Supplies of unleaded gasoline were up 6.3 million barrels
  Supplies of heating oil were up 2.1 million barrels.
  
  

• U.K.s GDP rose 0.7% in the second quarter and 2.6% YoY.
  

• Argentina built up monetary reserves of $28.725 billion which, however, it doesn't intend to use to repay the holdouts from its default in December 2001, Martin Redrado, president of Argentina's Central Bank said.
  
  

• Japan's new Finance Minister Koji Omi said on Wednesday he saw no need to comment or act on movements in the euro/yen rate now and warned markets "I'm still an amateur" on currencies.

The Suspension of Habeas Corpus

House Passes Measure on Religion Suits

Health insurance premiums continue to soar

White House said to bar hurricane report

Most Iraqis Favor Immediate U.S. Pullout,

Greenspan: Dump SarbOx He said the evidence is clear that Sarbanes-Oxley strictures are driving initial public stock offerings away from the New York Stock Exchange and to the London Stock Exchange.