Watchman Newsletter

Trillions in Financial Bailouts: Major Beneficiaries are Banks and Wall Street

Dr. Housing Bubble (Link) (May 14, 2009)

Banks, take the blue pill. Public, please take the red pill. If I had to characterize the current economic environment, it would have to consist of two completely different sets of beliefs.

On one hand, you have banks and Wall Street receiving massive bailouts from the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve, bailouts of the magnitude that would gear up for a Great Depression and imply that the banking system of our country is insolvent.

Then on the other hand, you have Wall Street and the crony banks trying to convince the public that this is a minor recession and all will be well in Q3 and Q4 of 2009. The problem of course is that this is not your typical recession yet the public is being led to believe that all is well while bailouts are being dolled out by the truckload to the wrong locations. The actions we are taking keeps in place the banking oligarchy and sacrifices the public under the guise that this is good medicine for the general economy.

Obama warns Netanyahu: Don't surprise me with Iran strike

Haaretz (Link) - Aluf Benn and Natasha Mozgovaya (May 14, 2009)

U.S. President Barack Obama has sent a message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanding that Israel not surprise the U.S. with an Israeli military operation against Iran. The message was conveyed by a senior American official who met in Israel with Netanyahu, ministers and other senior officials. Earlier, Netanyahu's envoy visited Washington and met with National Security Adviser James Jones and with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and discussed the dialogue Obama has initiated with Tehran.

The message from the American envoy to the prime minister reveals U.S. concern that Israel could lose patience and act against Iran. It is important to the Americans that they not be caught off guard and find themselves facing facts on the ground at the last minute.

Obama did not wait for his White House meeting with Netanyahu, scheduled for next Monday, to deliver his message, but rather sent it ahead of time with his envoy.

Employee Free Choice Act - a trap for workers

One News Now (Link) - Jim Brown (May 14, 2009)

President Bush's former Labor secretary says the White House-backed Employee Free Choice Act would be more appropriately titled the "Employee No Free Choice Act."

Labor organizations and their liberal Democratic allies on Capitol Hill are pushing aggressively for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as "card check" legislation. If enacted, the bill would take away workers' right to a secret ballot and ease the ability of unions to organize.

The legislation was once thought to be in jeopardy in the Senate, but may have new life now that Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter has switched to the Democratic Party. Former Bush Labor Secretary Elaine Chao believes the bill could lead to the coercion or intimidation of rank-and-file union workers.

"If the Democrats are successful, the average American worker could find himself in a union he was denied the right to vote for, with a contract which he had no say in whether to ratify, and with insufficient information about how unions and their leaders are spending their hard-earned compulsory dues," she points out.

Ironically, one senior Democratic lawmaker recently told The Hill newspaper that the level of seniority awarded to Arlen Specter by the Senate Democratic Caucus would be decided by secret ballot during an organizational meeting after the 2010 election.

Hard Times Ahead

News With Views (Link) - Paul Proctor (May 13, 2009)

It’s time to prepare for hard times, my friends. And, if you’re a bible believing, Christ-following Christian, I believe the coming years will be particularly troublesome. I say “bible-believing, Christ-following Christian” because our degenerating culture has all but stripped the biblical definition of the word “Christian” from today’s collective conscience so that it has lost much of it’s scriptural meaning, even among many of today’s attending church members.

The enemies of Christ have clearly risen to great power in this country and are, as I write, busy endeavoring to finish off what remains of the church for the purpose of replacing it with a god and religion more suitable for global government. Though they may well in time take possession of the many debt-heavy mega churches and other grand houses of worship around the country in order to turn them into federally-subsidized community centers for faith-based social services, they won’t be successful at completely silencing or eliminating the true body of Christ who will likely be forced to abandon them in order to keep hearing and proclaiming God’s Word uncensored. Unless the Lord Himself intervenes to alter the current course of events, those now in power will most certainly rule over us for a season – and an arduous one at that.

Considering the unbiblical and unconstitutional legislation at hand, it’s looking more and more like faithful Christians could soon be viewed as enemies of the state for no other reason than having believed, proclaimed and obeyed the Word of God. Not only is the church being attacked from without, it is also being undermined from within by charlatans who would transform it into something more spiritually pliable, socially useful and dialectically accommodating.

Gerald Celente Trends Alert - The "Bailout Bubble" - The Bubble to End All Bubbles

Yonkers Tribune (Link) - Gerald Celente (May 13, 2009)

The biggest financial bubble in history is being inflated in plain sight, said Gerald Celente, Director of The Trends Research Institute. "This is the Mother of All Bubbles, and when it explodes," Celente warns, "it will signal the end to the boom/bust cycle that has characterized economic activity throughout the developed world."

Either unwilling or unable to call the bubble by its proper name, the media, Washington and Wall Street describe the stupendous government expenditures on rescue packages, stimulus plans, buyouts and takeovers as emergency measures needed to salvage the severely damaged economy. "All of this terminology is econo-jargon," said Celente. "It's like calling torture 'enhanced interrogation techniques.'

Washington is inflating the biggest bubble ever: the 'Bailout Bubble.' "This is much bigger than the Dot-com and Real Estate bubbles which hit speculators, investors and financiers the hardest. However destructive the effects of these busts on employment, savings and productivity, the Free Market Capitalist framework was left intact. But when the 'Bailout Bubble' explodes, the system goes with it."

Christian group declares UFOs 'evil spirits' of the Bible

The Tech Herald (Link) - Rich Bowden (May 13, 2009)

A Christian counter-cult ministry will hold a symposium as part of the upcoming Roswell UFO Festival (July 03 to July 05, 2009), putting its own angle on the ongoing debate concerning the mysterious existence or otherwise of unidentified flying objects and alien species.

Amid all the fun and mystery of this year's festival, which includes the rumoured appearance of legendary band Jefferson Starship, the Christian group known as 'Alien Resistance', will outline its Biblical philosophy that all UFOs are in fact the "evil spirits" of the Bible, according to a May 12 statement.

"From a Biblical Christian perspective it becomes clear that 'aliens' are actually the evil spirits of the Bible," contend the group, which will also use the symposium to deliver its message on counter-cult evangelism, creationism, and spiritual warfare.

"This idea is backed up experientially with the evidence of numerous testimonies of 'abductees', which show that 'alien abduction' experiences stop in the name and authority of Jesus Christ," the statement continued.

Sweden allows sex-selective abortions

Catholic News Agency (Link) (May 12, 2009)

Sweden, which legalized abortion in 1938, has taken its abortion extremism one step further by legalizing “gender based” abortion which allows a mother to decide to abort her baby solely due to his or her sex.

The Local reported that a pregnant woman in South Sweden, who already has two girls, arrived at Mälaren Hospital and inquired whether or not she would be giving birth to another girl.   She went on to tell her doctors that her previous two pregnancies ended in abortion because she did not want to have another girl - and if this child was another girl, she would have it aborted as well.

Doctors expressed concern over this and brought it to the attention of Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare. They asked how to handle requests where doctors felt “pressured to examine the [fetus’s] gender” without a medical rationale.

The Board came back and said that requests to for abortions based on a child’s gender cannot be refused.

Johnston’s Archive reported that over 25% of Sweden’s pregnancies end in abortion. An increase of 17% after the introduction of the morning after pill, which was promoted by pro-abortion advocates as a way to reduce the number of abortions performed.

U.S. statement on nukes pact stirs concerns in Israel

JTA (Link) - Leslie Susser (May 12, 2009)

Given the delicate state of relations between the new administrations in Washington and Jerusalem, an American statement last week about the need for Israel to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, or NPT, touched a raw nerve.

The worst-case scenario is that it portends a "grand bargain" with Iran at Israel's expense. In this nightmare development, the American side will say to Tehran: Abandon your nuclear weapons program and we will lean on Israel to dismantle its alleged nuclear arsenal.

Few Israeli officials believe it will come to that. However, there is genuine concern at the hint of a more subtle political linkage: That the U.S. could press Israel on the nuclear issue if it continues to resist a solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of two states for two peoples.

The American statement, bracketing Israel with India, Pakistan and North Korea, came during a U.N. meeting of the 189 signatories of the NPT on May 5.

China has developed its own operating system for cyber war with U.S.

World Tribune (Link) (May 12, 2009)

A leading cyber security specialist said last week that China has developed its own ultra-secure operating system for a strategic edge in its cyber warfare with U.S. computer systems.

Kevin G. Coleman, a specialist with the Technolytics Institute and consultant to the office of the Director of National Intelligence, said in congressional testimony that the United States is woefully unprepared to counter cyber attacks on its electronic infrastructures.

Part of the cyber arms race includes China’s creation of Kylin, a new "hardened" operating system. It began converting systems to it in 2007, according to the current edition of East-Asia-Intel.com.

Obama Halves Chrysler's Planned Marketing Budget

Advertising Age (Link) - Jean Halliday (May 11, 2009)

Chrysler wanted to spend $134 million in advertising over the nine weeks it's expected to be in bankruptcy -- the U.S. Treasury's auto-industry task force gave it half that.

So if GM, which is wrestling with the possibility of a Chapter 11 filing itself, is wondering how much influence the task force will have over marketing, the answer is: plenty. However, transcripts from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Southern District of New York, where the Chrysler case is being heard, proved for the first time that the task force at least understands that advertising is a necessary expense -- even if it doesn't think Chrysler needs $134 million for nine weeks of car ads.

Robert Manzo, executive director of Capstone Advisory Group and a consultant to Chrysler, testified at a May 4 hearing that the task force "believed that it was not feasible to not spend anything on marketing and advertising for fear of eroding the image of the brand," during the company's planned nine weeks in bankruptcy. However, Mr. Manzo also testified that this "hotly discussed" matter resulted in the task force basically slashing in half the amount Chrysler wanted for advertising in the period.

Signs Point Toward ‘Cataclysmic’ War in Middle East

Newsmax (Link) (May 11, 2009)

A former top American intelligence official agrees with a Messianic pastor that major and possibly calamitous events will unfold in the Middle East in the coming year.

“I think within 12 months something is going to happen, one way or another,” said retired Lt. Gen. William Boykin, who served as deputy undersecretary of defense for Intelligence from 2003 to 2007.

His concerns are echoed by best-selling novelist Joel C. Rosenberg, whose works have uncannily foreshadowed real events including 9/11. “I don’t know how much time we have. I believe a cataclysmic war is coming in the Middle East,” he said.

Big surprise...auto bailouts won't be repaid

One News Now (Link) - Jim Brown (May 11, 2009)

Both were initially billed as temporary government loans, but the multi-billion-dollar bailouts of Chrysler and General Motors are not likely to be paid back to American taxpayers.

General Motors, which could soon be majority-owned by the federal government, lost $6 billion in the first quarter and reports that it spent $10.2 billion more cash than it took in from January to March. The Obama administration has given GM until June 1 to make a deal with its creditors or enter bankruptcy.

The negative news from GM comes in the wake of the Obama administration's admission last week that Chrysler will not repay taxpayers the more than $7 billion bailout it received earlier this year. A bankruptcy court has approved an additional $4.5 billion in taxpayer funding for the failed automaker.

GM CEO: Bankruptcy Likely; Firm May Leave Detroit

CNBC (Link) - Reuters (May 11, 2009)

General Motors is open to considering moving its headquarters from Detroit, selling off U.S. plants and even renegotiating parts of its restructuring plan with its major union, the new chief executive said Monday.

CEO Fritz Henderson, on a conference call with reporters, said it was more probable that GM was headed for bankruptcy by June 1—the U.S. government-imposed deadline for the automaker to restructure or face bankruptcy.

"It's more probable that we would need to accomplish our goals in a bankruptcy," Henderson said. "There's still a chance for it to be done outside a court proceeding."

A move by GM to leave Detroit would represent another blow for the economy of a region already reeling from the bankruptcy of Chrysler and the sharp downturn in auto manufacturing. (Update: GM Execs Dump Stock As Trading Window Opens)

GM purchased its glass-towered headquarter building known as Detroit's Renaissance Center last year for $625 million. The 100-year-old automaker has been based there since 1996.

'Steep rise' in Sri Lanka deaths

BBC (Link) (May 10, 2009)

At least 378 people have been killed by fierce shelling from the Sri Lankan army in the past 24 hours, a health official has told the BBC. The doctor, working in the northern conflict zone, said 1,122 others had been injured - and more bodies were on beaches and by the sides of roads. The army denies shelling the designated "safe zone" for civilians, and blames any deaths on Tamil Tiger rebels.

The claims are impossible to verify as reporters are banned from the war zone. But the BBC's Charles Haviland, in Colombo, says a steady stream of information coming from the area suggests that civilians are being killed. And he says health officials are convinced that the shells are coming from territory held by the Sri Lankan army.

Israel has secret plan to thwart division of Jerusalem

Haaretz (Link) - Akiva Eldar (May 10, 2009)

The government and settler organizations are working to surround the Old City of Jerusalem with nine national parks, pathways and sites, drastically altering the status quo in the city. The secret plan was assigned to the Jerusalem Development Authority (JDA).

In a report presented to former prime minister Ehud Olmert on September 11 last year, the JDA described the purpose of the project as "to create a sequence of parks surrounding the Old City," all in the aspiration "to strengthen Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel."

The program, sponsored by the Prime Minister's Office and the mayor of Jerusalem, is secret and did not engage in any form of public discussion. According to an analysis by Ir Amim, a non-profit organization dedicated to Jerusalem issues that impact on Israeli and Palestinians which exposed this detailed, confidential government plan, the motivation is to create Israeli hegemony over the area around the Old City, "inspired by extreme right-wing ideology."