Rate cuts and other decisive actions might not be enough to revive the battered financial system. Here's what the government may try next

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Efforts by governments worldwide to stop a slide in financial markets haven't worked yet and the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury may have to consider more dramatic measures.

This week the Fed has moved to pump potentially trillions of additional dollars into the nation's banks and leading corporations. And it led the way on emergency interest rate cuts by central banks around the globe Wednesday morning.

As the global selloff continues, the U.S. government is now said to be considering steps that include taking direct investments in banks, as well as guaranteeing their debt and insuring all deposits.

But experts say the Fed's actions may not be enough to stop the global economy from plunging into the worst downturn seen in at least 25 years, if not since the Great Depression.

Even those praising the Fed say it's not clear what it would take to calm markets.

"I think they've been pretty inventive and pretty unrestrained," said Tom Schlesinger, executive director of the Financial Markets Center, a think tank that follows the Fed. "But I'm not sure what it would take to stem the fear in the markets. It's such a contagious and irrational phenomenon, and feeding on itself and compounding itself day by day."

On Tuesday, the Fed unveiled a plan to lend directly to the nation's major companies by buying up an unlimited amount of the $1.3 trillion in commercial paper, short-term loans that businesses use to operate day-to-day, on the market.

The Fed also announced it was doubling the size of its term auction facility, a program the Fed created last year to lend banks money for up to 85 days at a time, to $300 billion. The Fed added it was prepared to boost the term auction facility to $900 billion by year's end.

Despite this, banks still appear to be reluctant to lend money and stock markets around the globe have continued to fall. On Thursday, the Dow industrials plunged nearly 700 points to a five-year low and markets worldwide plunged.

Experts say there are worries that the global economy is now sliding towards recession and that there is relatively little that the Fed or other central banks can do to stop that. The International Monetary Fund warned Wednesday that the world's economy will slow sharply this year and next.

"They're looking a bit more impotent with each action," said Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, about the Fed.

Achuthan said that since major banks around the world are cutting back on their lending, that dwarfs the economic muscle of the world's central banks and governments.

But in a speech Tuesday, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke vowed that the Fed would do whatever it takes to try to fix the credit crunch.

"To support growth and reduce the downside risks, continued efforts to stabilize the financial markets are essential," he said. "The Federal Reserve will continue to use the tools at its disposal to improve market functioning and liquidity."

Experts say they don't think Wednesday's global rate cuts are the last steps the Fed plans to take. And many have suggestions as to what the Fed might do to get banks in the business of lending again.

The first step is probably the most traditional one - further rate cuts.

According to closely watched interest rate futures, investors are pricing in an 84% chance of another quarter point cut at the Fed's next meeting, a two day session that concludes on Oct. 29. That would leave the central bank's key fed funds rate at 1.25%.

Many experts believe the Fed would not want to take rates below 1% - which is where they were for 12 months in 2003 and 2004. Some have blamed those low rates for helping to create an environment of easy lending that contributed to the housing bubble.

Yet, the Bank of Japan's key interest rate is already at 0.5%. And some argue that it would be justified for the Fed to lower rates to that level, or even to 0%, because of current conditions.

"Why not? If you're facing a situation where you need to lower the rates all the way to zero to keep the economy from going over the precipice, why wouldn't you do that," said Lyle Gramley, a former Fed governor now working as an economist for the Stanford Group.

Regardless of how far the Fed is willing to cut, more cuts are expected by other central banks, most notably the European Central Bank. That's because the ECB had not been cutting rates during the past year and have more room to lower rates.

Bill Gross, the chief investment officer at giant bond manager Pimco, wrote this week that another step the Fed could take is to become a clearing house for trades of a variety of exotic and arcane financial instruments such as collateralized debt obligations or credit default swaps. These have traditionally been traded directly between two firms rather than in an open market.

"We believe that the Federal Reserve must now act as a clearing house, guaranteeing that institutional transactions clear," Gross wrote in his most recent commentary.

Schlesinger agreed, saying that while the Fed would normally never think to take such an active role in markets, these are far from normal times.

Gramley said he also believes that the Fed may supplement its efforts to help larger firms by starting to lend money to small and medium sized businesses as well.

The Fed could agree to buy small business loans from banks that are backed by collateral, such as inventories or equipment. Gramley said the loans could be purchased on a non-recourse basis, meaning the Fed, and not the bank, assumes the risk if the loan goes bad.

That would free the banks from the need to raise more capital if the loans sour and could make them more willing to make such loans once again.

"The Fed can work aggressively enough to break the logjam," Gramley said.

Still, Schlesinger is worried that there is little that the Fed or other government entities can do to fix the current crisis of confidence gripping financial markets.

A painful recession may be the only way for the markets to work the problems out of the system - with further declines in housing prices and deeper job losses likely a result.

"I wish I had a silver bullet. But the fear is disconnected from underlying fundamentals at this point," said Schlesinger. "What will thaw it out is a sense among lenders that a modicum of trust has been restored in these complicated, opaque markets."

But Gramley said that even if recent or future actions by the Fed aren't enough to stop the economy from slowing further, they can still have a positive effect.

"Even if it's not going to prevent the recession from deepening, what it can prevent is a huge meltdown," said Gramley. 

Mixtape IMO: Although I wouldn’t class this as one of his best mixtapes, it’s still a must have. I’ve got a lot of time for Crooked I, and this mixtape still meets the standards I expect from him. Have a listen, if you don’t like it, it’s you that must change, not me.

Download Page:

http://www.dubcnn.com/mixtapes/crookedi-blockobama/

Direct Link:

http://www.dubcnm.com/audio/mixtapes/crooked_i-the_block_obama-(dubcnn).zip

G. Edgar Livengood and Amber Valentine are Athens, GA based duo Jucifer. Formed in 1993, so far they had produced a whole number of albums for labels like Capricorn and Relapse.

Their debut was 1995 "Superman/Licorice" 7", followed by a tour and a full-length - "Calling All Cars On A Vegas Strip", which was recorded in 1996, but wasn't released until 1998, due to a lack of funds. Release of yet another full-length called "I Name You Destroyer" was delayed until 2002 and the band produced what was initially a tour-only record - "Lambs" EP, but it was also available in stores.

In 2006, they signed a contract with Relapse Records and released "If Thine Enemy Hunger" album for a label. Their latest album (as of 2008) is a double LP based on French revolution called "L’autrichienne" and the band continues to tour/record, as well.

Discography:

Calling All Cars On The Vegas Strip CD (Capricorn, 1998)

The Lambs CD EP (Velocette, 2001)

I Name You Destroyer CD (Velocette, 2002)

War Bird CD EP (Velocette, 2004)

If Thine Enemy Hunger LP / CD (Relapse, 2006)

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan: A US missile strike targeting a high-level meeting of Al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders in a Pakistani tribal area missed most of them by just minutes, security officials said Friday. Two missiles hit the house of Pakistani Taliban leader Hafiz Sahar Gul in the North Waziristan district bordering Afghanistan on Thursday night, killing nine people including six Arab militants, the officials said.

"There was a meeting of around 30 foreign Al-Qaeda and local Taliban commanders in the house of Hafiz Sahar Gul but the majority of them left the building 10 minutes before the missile struck," a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The six Arabs who were killed are all believed to be lower-level operatives."

 
Pakistani soldiers stand alert with their weapons at an observation post in North Waziristan, along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.  Suspected US missile strikes in the Pakistani tribal areas bordering Afghanistan have killed bith terrorists and civilians.(AFP/File/Aamir Qureshi)

Officials did not immediately give the identities of the targeted militants. But they said that they were not Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.

Residents said the other three people killed in the strike in the remote village of Tapi were women and children, but there was no official confirmation.

Read the rest:
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.as
p?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&articl
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This is unbelievable. This is different. We have got Australians who feel so strongly that they can identify with Barack Obama as the president of a country we have such a long association with, that they are prepared to go over to America and do whatever the Barack Obama campaign offices need. This is such an amazing thing. There are young ones and political veterans and they are doing it for the same reason I am doing this I guess. We need an America with a person who is approachable and who can work with the world. We need someone who can talk and engage with others. Whether Americans want that is another matter. It is their country, but surely they must be tired of Mr. Bush spending all their money overseas funding destructive initiatives? Barack Obama is popular here and it's because you sense he does care and that he can hold a proper conversation with anyone. He doesn't appear to be short of words or capacity to empathise. Facebook has a Yes We Care group which was founded by an Australian and it is going really well. We want to see America do well so we are barracking for Barack! Can you believe that? Yes We Care.

The enterprises blame it on the financial crisis, although they certainly committed grave errors in sticking to oil-guzzling vehicles for too long. Be that as it may, asking the government for help now comes down to the following question: should private enterprises be allowed to privatize their profits, while socializing their losses?

This question has been answered for enterprises in the banking and financial world. Those that are too big to fail are allowed to keep their profits while the losses are socialized. Most of the enterprises are privately owned, while there also are some government-owned firms like Freddie and Fannie, offering interest rates with the implicit understanding that the governments guarantees all deposits.

Until now, there was a clear division between the financial (Wall Street) and the real economy (Main Street). While it went unquestioned that the Fed regulated the price of credit and provided an institutional framework for banks, free markets ruled in the world of manufactures and services. This has led to some US-specific problems, especially in the telecommunications and software sector, where large network externalities work against a free market. The resulting monopolies occasionally give rise to firms that could also be considered too big too fail.

As the situation of the world economy deteriorates, calls for government loans to private enterprises will get louder. Giving direct loans to companies is a second best solution. What needs to be fixed is the financial system. Banks should fulfill their role and once again channel savings to firms, which then invest the money. A quick&dirty solution is not acceptable.

Seven years after the Bush administration launched “Operation Enduring Freedom” with the relentless bombing of Afghanistan, US intelligence agencies have concluded that the situation in the devastated country is on “a downward spiral,” and that prospects are poor for stabilizing the US-backed government and militarily defeating the growing armed resistance.

These are the conclusions drawn by a classified draft National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that is in the final stages of preparation, according to US officials cited Wednesday in the New York Times.

According to the Times account, the report, which represents the consensus view of 16 separate US intelligence agencies, concludes that “the breakdown in central authority in Afghanistan has been accelerated by rampant corruption within the government of President Hamid Karzai and by an increase in violence by militants who have launched increasingly sophisticated attacks from havens in Pakistan.”

The report, which essentially warns that Washington is in danger of losing its war in Afghanistan, is not to be released in final form until after the US November elections.

While the US and its NATO allies have beefed up their occupation forces by some 20,000 troops over the last 18 months, the same period has seen a 50 percent increase in the number of armed attacks carried out by Afghan resistance fighters, whose ranks have been swelled by civilians seeking revenge for the deaths of relatives killed in stepped-up American air strikes and house-to-house raids.

On Tuesday, villagers in the southern province of Helmand reported that a US air strike claimed the lives of 40 civilians. In one demolished house, a couple and their eight children perished. The villagers reported that there were no Taliban fighters in the area when the bombs struck.

“There are confirmed reports of civilian casualties; however, it is unknown at this time how many,” a terse statement from the US-led occupation forces read.

The Pentagon found itself compelled to acknowledge on Wednesday that it indeed slaughtered dozens of civilians—most of them children—in an August 22 air strike on the village of Azizabad in Afghanistan’s western Herat province. The US military, which initially denied that any civilians had been killed, now admits to killing 33 unarmed men, women and children along with 22 “anti-coalition militants.” Afghan officials have continued to insist that 90 civilians—the majority of them women and children—died in the attack.

Hostility to the US puppet regime headed by Karzai has grown as the country’s economy has continued to deteriorate. Most recent figures put the national unemployment rate at 40 percent, and it is estimated that nearly half the population are unable to get enough food to meet minimal nutritional requirements.

According to US estimates, government forces control less than a third of the country, and many believe that to be an overestimate. Meanwhile, the Taliban and other forces opposing the US-led occupation have established control over increasingly large swaths of the country, installing their own mayors, courts and police forces.

At the same time, official corruption is rampant. As the NIE confirms, the heroin trade accounts for fully half of the country’s gross domestic product.

NATO officials announced this week that they had reached an agreement with the Afghan regime to use the foreign occupation forces to suppress the drug trade, which according to Pentagon estimates earns $60 million a year for the Taliban. Germany, Spain and other NATO countries have opposed such a move, believing that it will only stir up further popular opposition to the occupation.

The problem is compounded by the fact that government officials are probably making considerably more from narcotics trafficking. Last week, the New York Times published an article citing multiple official sources linking the Afghan president’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, to heroin trafficking.

The paper cited American narcotics investigators who reported that “senior officials at the DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration] and the office of the Director of National Intelligence complained to them that the White House favored a hands-off approach toward Ahmed Wali Karzai because of the political delicacy of the matter.”

The dismal assessment drafted by the US intelligence agency found confirmation from senior military commanders this week.

Admiral Michael Mullens, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Pentagon reporters Thursday that the situation in Afghanistan has been headed in “the wrong direction” for the last two years.

“The trends across the board are not going in the right direction,” Mullen said. “It will be tougher next year unless we get at all these challenges.”

Also on Thursday, the top US military commander in Afghanistan, General David McKiernan, told the French news agency AFP that “ultimately the solution here in this country will be a political solution, not a military one.”

The intelligence estimate from Washington and the statements from the US commanders echo recent assessments provided by a British military commander and the British ambassador in Afghanistan.

Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, the outgoing commander of British forces in Afghanistan, told the press last weekend, “We’re not going to win this war,” and that the best that could be hoped for was “reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that’s not a strategic threat.”

Meanwhile, the French publication Le Canard enchaîné quoted a memo recording a discussion between the British ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, and a French official last month in which Cowper-Coles insisted that the US-NATO military presence in the country “is part of the problem, not the solution.”

According to the document, the British ambassador described a corrupt and bankrupt Afghan regime that survived only thanks to the foreign occupation forces. The only way out of the crisis, he affirmed, was by replacing Karzai’s regime with an “acceptable dictator.”

British officials have apparently concluded that the US-initiated war in Afghanistan is unwinnable, and American military commanders, their forces stretched to the breaking point by the deployment of 152,000 troops in the occupation of Iraq together with the 33,000 in Afghanistan itself, appear largely in agreement.

There is no indication, however, that Washington is about to concede defeat in this seven-year-old war. Justified as a retaliation for the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the war is part of a drive to establish US hegemony over the oil-rich regions of Central Asia that were opened up in the wake of the Soviet Union’s dissolution. This remains a key strategic objective of the American ruling elite.

According to a report in the Washington Post Thursday, the Bush administration has responded to the NIE by ordering a major reassessment of US strategy and tactics in Afghanistan, an initiative that may well lead to a substantial escalation of the US intervention there.

According to the Post, given the upcoming election and the subsequent change in administrations, “senior officials have expressed worry that the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan is so tenuous that it may fall apart while a new set of US policymakers settles in.”

Under consideration is a significant increase in the number of troops as well as stepped-up intervention into western Pakistan, where already, as the Post points out, “Military Special Operations forces and operatives [are] now conducting regular secret incursions.”

The Post notes that an escalation of the dirty colonial war being waged by American forces in Afghanistan would enjoy bipartisan support.

“Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain are unlikely to question a major new US commitment; both have called for an increase in US troops,” the Post writes. “And unlike Iraq, where lawmakers have argued for years over funding and troop levels, there is bipartisan backing for doing more, and doing it quickly, in Afghanistan.”

In short, the November election will provide no means for the American people to express their overwhelming hostility to the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Instead, it appears increasingly likely that an escalation prepared by the Bush administration on the eve of the vote will be continued by the next administration, no matter whether Obama or McCain is victorious at the polls.

But this ignores one fundamental property of all democracies today. For most decisions, the elected leader is free to make decisions without consulting the people. Americans practically never have referendums and recent decisions, such as the bill to hold the CIA to the same interrogation standards as the military, or even the giant bailout approved by the Senate were made without consulting the people. Although majority opinion was pretty much known through polls and the media, the simple fact is that the politicians did not ask.

Therefore, the average American can only manipulate the decisions made in government by bringing into office someone who thinks the same way that s/he does. If they feel that a white, Protestant, highly educated, conservative male with a full head of hair and no beard is the most likely to make decisions congruent with the morals/desires of the majority because he thinks in a certain way, then so be it. Although we usually find ourselves in conflict with America's position in this day and age, whether about their policies or choice of candidate, there is some sense to picking everything about a candidate apart. So that he does what you want.

Op-Ed Columnist - Can This Be Pro-Life? - NYTimes.com
The Bush administration this month is quietly cutting off birth control supplies to some of the world’s poorest women in Africa.

Thus the paradox of a “pro-life” administration adopting a policy whose result will be tens of thousands of additional abortions each year — along with more women dying in childbirth.

The saga also spotlights a clear difference between Barack Obama and John McCain. Senator Obama supports U.N.-led efforts to promote family planning; Senator McCain stands with President Bush in opposing certain crucial efforts to help women reduce unwanted pregnancies in Africa and Asia.

...

Retrograde decisions on reproductive health are reached in conference rooms in Washington, but I’ve seen how they play out in African villages. A young woman lies in a hut, bleeding to death or swollen by infection, as untrained midwives offer her water or herbs. Her husband and children wait anxiously outside the hut, their faces frozen and perspiring as her groans weaken.

When she dies, her body is bundled in an old blanket and buried in a shallow hole, with brush piled on top to keep wild animals away. Her children sob and shriek and in the ensuing months they often endure neglect and are far more likely to die of hunger or disease.

In some parts of Africa, a woman now has a 1-in-10 risk of dying in childbirth. The idea that U.S. policy may increase that toll is infuriating.

Iceland may be the target of British opprobrium right now, but on the streets of Reykjavik, citizens are more concerned about their own increasingly dire situation. The collapse of the country's banking system and, along with it, the economy, is steadily affecting ever more of the 320,000 people who live on the North Atlantic island.

Yesterday, one of the country's few daily national newspapers announced it was shutting its doors, while the country's flag-carrying airline, Icelandair, said it had seen a dramatic slump in demand. No wonder the governor of the country's central bank has been sent home to rest by his doctors.

Such is the parlous state of its finances, economists now believe Iceland will have no choice but to go cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund and ask the world's lender of last resort to bail it out.

Negotiations are due to begin with Russia on Monday over a possible loan of €4bn (£3.15bn) but this will not be enough to get the country through its banking crisis. While such a loan would be worth a quarter of the country's annual GDP, the total liabilities of the Icelandic banks are more like nine times the size of Iceland's economy.

"Iceland is bankrupt," said Arsaell Valfells, a University of Iceland professor. "The Icelandic krona is history. The IMF has to rescue us."

Without help from the IMF, Iceland is almost certain to find itself in the same position as some of its leading financial institutions – bankrupt. The country would simply be unable to service its liabilities and its economy would be plunged yet further into crisis.

The krona, Iceland's currency, has already collapsed in recent months, but bankruptcy would make it worthless on world markets. And without a viable currency the banks can't be rescued, there is no cash to pay for essential imports, and no way of controlling inflation. The result is one with which Zimbabwe is now becoming ever more familiar – soaring prices, a big increase in unemployment and terrible hardship for most of the population.

The IMF now represents Iceland's best bet of getting through this crisis. Not that it is an easy option. The IMF will only intervene in countries on its own terms and Iceland would be expected to accept harsh strictures from the Washington-based organisation.

In the longer term, there will be political fallout from this collapse. Iceland has traditionally been sceptical about the appeal of the European Union, let alone membership of the bloc operating with the single currency. However, the idea of joining the EU – though it would mean putting up with foreign intervention in its fishing, Iceland's one remaining industry of note now banking has failed – may now become more attractive.

Iceland's bankruptcy will also shock the developed world. While other countries have quite recently trodden this path – most notably Thailand and several Latin American states – Iceland is considered a developed market by economists. Indeed, until the credit crisis began just over a year ago, the enterprising skills of the country's bankers had produced one of the best performing economies in the West.

So far, however, Iceland seems to be escaping one other common feature of national bankruptcies – serious civil unrest. Indeed, for now at least, the country seems to be attempting to pull together, with rock stars organising gigs, for example, in an attempt to buoy fellow citizens' spirits.

Nor has Geir Haarde, the country's Prime Minister, yet come under pressure to step down – and in public he is attempting to remain calm. "We are gradually moving through this crisis," he said on Thursday. "There are still a few issues to resolve but that is the nature of these kind of things." A difficult man to ruffle, clearly.

Source

This all because the Americans couldn't get their act together. Considering they were the cause of the whole mess. Why should Iceland or any other country for that matter have to suffer.

Britain is treating them like Terrorists imagine that, how sick is Brown anyway? I am beginning to wonder. Then again I wonder about a lot of things.  Brown should be given a good thrashing.

You know Iceland over the years, have pretty much minded their own business and really don't spend much time bothering anyone.  It is one of the most peaceful places on the planet. What a shame, such a nice country is being destroyed by US stupidity. So what does the US and Britain want from Iceland I wonder?

Meanwhile the US has destroyed so many.  With war, bad politics, mismanagement, along with their high and mighty know it all attitude. It seems to me they know very little, except how to exploit others. Their advice is not to be trusted. Well take at look at what they have done. Self Explanatory. They aren't the smartest crayons in the box.

Going to the IMF would be my worst nightmare.

So Bush and his croonies have the whole planet sucked into their nightmare. Why does the rest of the world have to put up with their predetory, imbacilic, stupidity anyway. I think is about time they were all told to shut the bloody hell up. They, obviously don't know what they are doing. Because of their aragant, foolishness, the rest of the world, is as usual suffering, because of their mistakes.  Yes they are just so cleaver.

Every day investors get up in the morning in the hope that there would be some positiveness somewhere in the market..but at the end of the day they return with a chink in the armour..how long is this gonna be continued..whats in store for dalal street..whaats the worst it can get to??

I always believed that indian investors have more tolerance and optimism then investors of any other country..but actually this time situation is totally out of their control..no matter how hard they try..its gonna be in red unless some heavyweights come into picture. The market has such conviction in hammering a stock down so continuously despite all sorts of clarifications coming in.

We have to realize that indian market was totally standing on FII's feet..and now as wall street has already crumbled..many banks failed..has direct implications on indian market which unfortunately many analysts were denying at the very hint of the worse, possibly because they didn't want to generate any thunder in the market or they were just greedy when others were fearful..

All the panic striken FII's coz of Global markets jittery are pulling back their money from indian soil leaving hard to fill liquidity crisis in the dalal street. I really think it would be very difficult to attract these foreign institution investors again to invest in indian market once this crisis is over as they have the options of investing in things like US treasury bills and European bunds..So, what will happen next? The valuations of all companies become zero? They will become bankrupt? Civilisation will extinct? Would the Sensex gets stable at 9000 level..??

Should government ban the short-selling at this point?? They should drop some policies in pipeline which makes FII's really difficult to leave indian market..Actually do the economists who run the country know only what they should do or they are just relaxing and enjoying the D-Street Mayhem?

Where are our heavyweights..the big boys.. the only ones that still have some juice or some meat left.. reliance..dlf..bharti.. i think tht these are the people who can really save market from tumbling any further..just like warren buffet did for US..though im still wondering that whether that was his smart investment or step to to help..but anyways his action did supported wall street a bit..We really need few harshad mehta's at this point who can again boost and capitalise the market to level that we have seen at the start of this year.

Moral of the story:

Enough damage has happened this week in four trading days to lose 15%, which is something that one doesn’t expect. The Bottom is still far for the Indian market..and there might be more blood-bath on the D-Street!

And as its aid that we have learnt from history that men never learn from history. So, till the human beings are there with there primitive emotions of fear and greed, bull and bear market will survive don't know how but it surely will.

Vous êtes les instruments que Dieu va utiliser pour provoquer le changement universel, et c’est pourquoi Barack a capturé la jeunesse. Et il a fait participer les jeunes dans un processus politique dont ils s’étaient détournés. C’est un signe. Quand le Messie parle, la jeunesse entendra, et il est sûr que le Messie parle. (…) Frères et soeurs, Barack Obama, est pour moi un héraut du Messie. Barack Obama est comme la trompette qui vous avertit que quelque chose de nouveau, quelque chose de meilleur arrive. (…) Un homme de couleur de mère blanche est devenu un sauveur pour nous. Un homme de couleur de mère blanche pourrait s'avérer être celui qui peut sauver l'Amérique de sa chute. Louis Farrakhan (Jour des Sauveurs, le 28 février 2008)

A l'heure où, sur fond de crise potentiellement catastrophique du système financier américian et mondial, nos médias et nos foules semblent attendre comme le Messie ce qui ressemble de plus en plus au hold up du siècle ...

Petit retour, pour ceux qui se demandaient où il pouvait bien être depuis tout ce temps, sur le grand ami du directeur de conscience du candidat démocrate qui avait pourtant promis, campagne oblige, de ne pas trop faire d’ombre à son protégé …

Et édifiante illustration de la véritable passion que soulève la candidature Obama dans certains milieux, notamment noirs, y compris au sein de la Nation de l’islam du pasteur antisémite Louis Farrakhan …

Farrakhan on Obama: 'The Messiah is absolutely speaking'
'Barack has captured the youth,' will bring about 'universal change'
October 09, 2008
WorldNetDaily

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, another powerful Chicago-based political figure associated with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and other long-time associates of Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama, is leaving no doubt about what he thinks of the leader in the campaign for the White House.

He says when Obama talks "the Messiah is absolutely speaking."

You can watch it for yourself on a newly posted YouTube video.

Addressing a large crowd behind a podium Feb. 24 with a Nation of Islam Saviour's Day 2008 sign, Farrakhan proclaims,

"You are the instruments that God is going to use to bring about universal change, and that is why Barack has captured the youth. And he has involved young people in a political process that they didn't care anything about. That's a sign. When the Messiah speaks, the youth will hear, and the Messiah is absolutely speaking."

"Brothers and sisters," Farrakhan said, "Barack Obama to me, is a herald of the Messiah. Barack Obama is like the trumpet that alerts you something new, something better is on the way."

Farrakhan points out that the man Nation of Islam followers refer to as "the Savior," Fard Muhammad, had a black father and a white mother, just as Obama did.

"A black man with a white mother became a savior to us," he said. "A black man with a white mother could turn out to be one who can lift America from her fall.

"Would God allow Barack to be president of a country that has been so racist, so evil in its treatment of Hispanics, native Americans, blacks?" he asked. "Would God do something like that? Yeah. Of course he would. That's to show you that the stone that the builders rejected has become the headstone of the corner. This is a sign to you. It's the time of our rise. It's the time that we should take our place. The future is all about you."

Farrakhan suggested he would keep a low profile in the campaign, despite his enthusiasm for Obama.

"That's why you have never heard me make any comment," he explained. "I love that brother, and I want to see that brother successful. I don't want to say anything that would hurt that brother, and I don't want them to use me or the Nation of Islam."

Returning to the theme that Obama is a mystical figure, Farrakhan said, he "is not the Messiah for sure, but anytime he gives you a sign of uniting races, ethnic groups, ideologies, religions and makes people feel a sense of oneness, that's not necessarily Satan's work, that is, I believe, the work of God."

He went on to point out that when religious scholars talk about Christ or the Islamic Mahdi, they never talk in racial terms – again, pointing to Obama's mixed racial background.

WND previously reported a website called "Is Barack Obama the Messiah?" captured the wave of euphoria that followed the Democratic senator's remarkable rise.

The site is topped by an Obama quote strategically ripped from a Jan. 7 speech at Dartmouth College just before the New Hampshire Primary in which he told students, "… a light will shine through that window, a beam of light will come down upon you, you will experience an epiphany, and you will suddenly realize that you must go to the polls and vote" for Obama.

MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews is among the many members of the media enraptured by Obama, admitting he felt a "thrill going up my leg" listening to an Obama speech.

At the media watchdog Newsbusters, P.J. Gladnick writes that Obama has a charisma that goes beyond "his youthful vigor, or handsomeness, or even inspiring rhetoric."

"Bill Clinton, with all his effortless, winking charm, didn't have what Obama has, which is a sort of powerful luminosity, a unique high-vibration integrity," Gladnick says. "Dismiss it all you like, but I've heard from far too many enormously smart, wise, spiritually attuned people who've been intuitively blown away by Obama's presence - not speeches, not policies, but sheer presence - to say it's just a clever marketing ploy, a slick gambit carefully orchestrated by hotshot campaign organizers who, once Obama gets into office, will suddenly turn from perky optimists to vile soul-sucking lobbyist whores, with Obama as their suddenly evil, cackling overlord."

WND also reported when talk radio host Rush Limbaugh criticized Democrats who were comparing Obama to Jesus and Gov. Sarah Palin to Pontius Pilate.

"I know Jesus Christ. I pray to Jesus Christ all the time," said Limbaugh." I study what Jesus Christ did and said all the time, and let me tell you something, Barack Obama, you are no Jesus Christ."

He also attacked Obama's stances for abortion and sex education for children in kindergarten, saying, "I can't find any such references to Jesus promoting infanticide nor do I find any references to Jesus Christ suggesting sex education be taught to 4- and 5-year-olds, but I'm still looking in the New Testament and I'll let you all know if I come up with anything."

Democrats, including party strategist Donna Brazile and Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., made nearly identical biblical comparisons of the characters in this presidential election, which Limbaugh traced back to a Sept. 4 posting on a Washington blog.

"Barack Obama was a community organizer like Jesus," Cohen said during a one-minute speech on the floor of the U.S. House yesterday. "Pontius Pilate was a governor."

Did you register by October 6?

If so, what makes you want to vote in this election?

Is it your first election to vote?

Who are you voting for?

If not, why are you not voting?

Separately, the U.S. and the globe's other industrial powers pledged to take "decisive action and use all available tools" to prevent a worldwide economic catastrophe.

"This is a period like none of us has ever seen before," declared Paulson at a rare Friday night news conference. He said the government program to purchase stock in private U.S. financial firms will be open to a broad array of institutions, including banks, in an effort to help them raise desperately needed money.

The administration received the authority to take such direct action in the $700 billion economic rescue bill that Congress passed and President Bush signed last week.

Earlier Friday, stock prices hurtled downward in the United States, Europe and Asia, even as President Bush tried to reassure Americans and the world that the U.S. and other governments were aggressively addressing what has become a near panic.

A sign of how bad things have gotten: A drop of 128 points in the Dow Jones industrials was greeted with sighs of relief after the index had plummeted much further on previous days. The week ended as the Dow's worst ever, with the index down an incredible 40.3 percent since its record close almost exactly one year earlier, on Oct. 9. 2007.

Investors suffered a paper loss of $2.4 trillion for the week, as measured by the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 index, and for the past year the losses have totaled $8.4 trillion.

It was even worse overseas on Friday. Britain's FTSE index ended below the 4,000 level for the first time in five years; Germany's DAX fell 7 percent and France's CAC-40 finished down 7.7 percent. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 9.6 percent, also hitting a five-year low. For the week, the Nikkei lost nearly a quarter of its value. Russia's market never even opened.

Paulson announced the administration's new effort to prop up banks at the conclusion of discussions among finance officials of the Group of Seven major industrialized countries. That group endorsed the outlines of a sweeping program to combat the worst global credit crisis in decades.

Earlier this week, Britain had moved to pour cash into its troubled banks in exchange for stakes in them — a partial nationalization.

Paulson said the U.S. program would be designed to complement banks' own efforts to raise fresh capital from private sources. The government's stock purchases will be of nonvoting shares so it will not have power to run the companies.

The purchase of stakes in companies would be in addition to the main thrust of the $700 billion rescue effort, which is to buy bad mortgages and other distressed assets from financial institutions. The aim is to unthaw frozen credit, get banks to resume more normal lending operations and stave off severe problems for businesses and everyday Americans alike.

It would mark the first time the government has taken equity ownership in banks in this manner since a similar program was employed during the Depression.

In 1989, the government created the Resolution Trust Corp. to deal with the aftermath of the savings and loan crisis. It disposed of the assets of failed savings and loans.

Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke met with their counterparts from the world's six other richest countries late in the day as the rout of financial markets sped ahead despite earlier dramatic rescue efforts in the U.S. and abroad.

In a statement at the end of that meeting, the G7 officials vowed to protect major banks and to prevent their failure. They also committed to working to get credit flowing more freely again, to support the efforts of banks to raise money from both public and private sources, to bolster deposit insurance and to revive the battered mortgage financing market.

They did not provide specifics beyond that five-point framework.

At the White House earlier in the day, Bush said, "We're in this together and we'll come through this together." He added, "Anxiety can feed anxiety, and that can make it hard to see all that's being done to solve the problem."

He made it clear the United States must work with other countries to battle the worst financial crisis that has jolted the world economy in more than a half-century.

"We've seen that problems in the financial system are not isolated to the United States," he said. "So we're working closely with partners around the world to ensure that our actions are coordinated and effective."

The Dow dropped a little over 100 points while he was speaking.

Fear has tightened its grip on investors worldwide even as the United States and other countries have taken a series of radical actions including an unprecedented, coordinated interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and other major central banks.

Besides the United States, the other members of the G7 meeting in Washington are Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada. Finance officials also planned to meet with Bush Saturday at the White House.

"We are in a development where the downward spiral is picking up speed," said Germany's Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, who wanted to see an orchestrated response among the G7.

So did French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, who said a "coordinated, synchronized and rightly timed approach" was needed.

An even larger group of nations — called the G20 — will meet with Paulson on Saturday evening. How the world's finance officials and central bank presidents can better contain the spreading financial crisis also will dominate discussions at the weekend meetings of the 185-nation International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington.

The British, who recently announced a plan to guarantee billions of dollar worth of debt held by major banks, have been pitching that idea to the rest of the G7 members.

The idea behind all these ideas — as well as bold steps previously announced in recent weeks — is to get credit flowing more freely again.

In the United States, hard-pressed banks and investment firms are drawing emergency loans from the Federal Reserve because they can't get money elsewhere. Skittish investors have cut them off, moving their money into safer Treasury securities. Financial institutions are hoarding whatever cash they have, rather than lending it to each other or customers.

The lending lockup — which is making it harder and more expensive for businesses and ordinary people to borrow money — is threatening to push the United States and the world economy as a whole into a deep and painful recession.

In Europe, governments have moved to protect nervous bank depositors. Germany pledged to guarantee all private bank savings and CDs in the country, and Iceland and Denmark followed suit. Ireland went even further by also guaranteeing Irish banks' debts. The United States will temporarily boost deposit insurance from $100,000 to $250,000 in cases where its banks or savings and loans fail.

The Fed, meanwhile, has repeatedly tapped its Depression-era authority to be a lender of last resort, not only to financial institutions but also to other types of companies. Earlier this week, the Fed said it would buy massive amounts of companies' debts, in another unprecedented effort to break through the credit clog.

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• Paulson: U.S. will buy stock in banks

Cadman bribe tape wasn't doctored: Expert

Ted Colley ,  Canwest News Service

October 10, 2008

SURREY, B.C. - Prime Minister Stephen Harper's own audio expert says a tape providing key evidence about an alleged bribe was not doctored as Harper has claimed.

Author Tom Zytaruk asked the prime minister on tape about an alleged attempt by Conservative officials to bribe Independent MP Chuck Cadman.

In 2005, Cadman told his wife, Dona Cadman, that two Conservative representatives had offered him a $1-million life insurance policy in exchange for his vote in a confidence motion aimed at bringing down the Liberal government.

Cadman was terminally ill at the time and died just two months later.

The interview, in which Harper speaks of an offer to Cadman "to replace financial considerations he might lose during an election," has been cited by Liberals in the House of Commons and on articles posted on the Liberal party website as evidence that Mr. Harper knew of an alleged attempt to bribe Cadman in May 2005, in exchange for his vote in the Commons to topple the Liberal government of the day. Harper, who denies knowing any such thing, is suing the Liberals for $3.5-million.

Two audio experts hired earlier by Harper said the tape appeared to have been doctored.

An Ontario judge ordered another analysis and Harper tapped former FBI agent Bruce Koenig for the job.

Koenig said the portion of the tape dealing with the insurance policy "contains neither physical nor electronic splices, edits or alterations," according to a report entered in court on Friday.

Last month, Harper was able to persuade the court to put the lawsuit on hold until after the Oct. 14 federal election. Harper also tried to keep Koenig's report out of the court record until the vote had passed, but the Liberals were able to get it on the record Friday.

Zytaruk, who has steadfastly maintained the tape was never altered, said he's happy about the timing.

"I'm glad this came out before the election. I was really looking forward to testifying because it's not pleasant to be accused on a national scale of doing something dishonest, such as doctoring a tape."

Dona Cadman, the Conservative candidate in Surrey North, could not be reached for comment before press time.

Source

Harper, Bush Share Roots in Controversial Philosophy

Close advisers schooled in 'the noble lie' and 'regime change.'

What do close advisors to Stephen Harper and George W. Bush have in common? They reflect the disturbing teachings of Leo Strauss, the German-Jewish émigré who spawned the neoconservative movement.

Strauss, who died in 1973, believed in the inherent inequality of humanity. Most people, he famously taught, are too stupid to make informed decisions about their political affairs. Elite philosophers must decide on affairs of state for us.

In Washington, Straussians exert powerful influence from within the inner circle of the White House. In Canada, they roost, for now, in the so-called Calgary School, guiding Harper in framing his election strategies. What preoccupies Straussians in both places is the question of "regime change."

Strauss defined a regime as a set of governing ideas, institutions and traditions. The neoconservatives in the Bush administration, who secretly conspired to make the invasion of Iraq a certainty, had a precise plan for regime change. They weren't out to merely replace Saddam with an American puppet. They planned to make the system more like the U.S., with an electoral process that can be manipulated by the elites, corporate control over the levers of power and socially conservative values.

Usually regime change is imposed on a country from outside through violent means, such as invasion. On occasion, it occurs within a country through civil war. After the American Civil War, a new regime was imposed on the Deep South by the North, although the old regime was never entirely replaced.

Is regime change possible through the electoral process? It's happening in the U.S., where the neocons are succeeding in transforming the American state from a liberal democracy into a corporatist, theocratic regime. As Canada readies for a federal election, the question must be asked: Are we next?

The 'noble lie'

Strauss believed that allowing citizens to govern themselves will lead, inevitably, to terror and tyranny, as the Weimar Republic succumbed to the Nazis in the 1930s. A ruling elite of political philosophers must make those decisions because it is the only group smart enough. It must resort to deception -- Strauss's "noble lie" -- to protect citizens from themselves. The elite must hide the truth from the public by writing in code. "Using metaphors and cryptic language," philosophers communicated one message for the elite, and another message for "the unsophisticated general population," philosopher Jeet Heer recently wrote in the Globe and Mail. "For Strauss, the art of concealment and secrecy was among the greatest legacies of antiquity."

The recent outing of star New York Times reporter Judith Miller reveals how today's neocons use the media to conceal the truth from the public. For Straussians, telling Americans that Saddam didn't have WMD's and had nothing to do with Al-Qaeda, but that we needed to take him out for geopolitical and ideological reasons you can't comprehend, was a non-starter. The people wouldn't get it. Time for a whopper.

Miller was responsible for pushing into the Times the key neocon lie that Saddam was busy stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. This deception helped build support among Americans for the invasion of Iraq. Miller was no independent journalist seeking the truth nor a victim of neocon duplicity, as she claimed. She worked closely with Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who was U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff and responsible for coordinating Iraq intelligence and communication strategy. Libby is a Straussian who studied under Paul Wolfowitz, now head of the World Bank, and before that, deputy secretary of defense, where he led the 'Invade Iraq" lobby. Wolfowitz studied under Strauss and Allan Bloom, Strauss's most famous student.

Miller cultivated close links to the neocons in the administration and at the American Enterprise Institute, the leading Washington-based neocon think tank. AEI played the key role outside government in fabricating intelligence to make the case for invading Iraq. Straussian Richard Perle, who chaired the Defence Policy Board Advisory Committee until he was kicked off because of a conflict of interest, is a senior fellow at AEI and coordinated its efforts. Miller co-wrote a book on the Middle East with an AEI scholar. Rather than being a victim of government manipulation, Miller was a conduit between the neocons and the American public. As a result of her reporting, many Americans came to believe that Saddam had the weapons. War and regime change followed.

'Regime change' in Canada

As in the U.S., regime change became a Canadian media darling. Before 9-11, the phrase appeared in Canadian newspapers less than ten times a year. It usually referred to changes in leadership of a political party or as part of the phrase "regulatory regime change." Less than a week after 9-11, the phrase began to be used in its Straussian sense, as if a scenario was being choreographed.

From 19 mentions in Canadian newspapers in 2001, regime change soared to 790 mentions in 2002 and 1334 mentions in 2003. With the Iraq invasion accomplished that year, usage tailed off in 2004 (291 mentions) and in 2005 (208 mentions to November 10).

There's one big difference between American and Canadian Straussians. The Americans assumed positions of power and influence in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. The Canadians have not had much opportunity to show (or is that hide?) their stuff. That may change with a Harper victory.

Paul Wolfowitz's teacher, Allan Bloom, and another Straussian, Walter Berns, taught at the University of Toronto during the 1970s. They left their teaching posts at Cornell University because they couldn't stomach the student radicalism of the '60s. At Toronto, they influenced an entire generation of political scientists, who fanned out to universities across the country.

Two of their students, Ted Morton and Rainer Knopff, went to the University of Calgary where they specialize in attacking the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They claim the charter is the result of a conspiracy foisted on the Canadian people by "special interests." These nasty people are feminists, gays and lesbians, the poor, prisoners and refugee-rights groups who are advancing their own interests through the courts at the expense of the general public, these Straussians allege.

The problem with their analysis is that the special interest which makes more use of the courts to advance its interests than all these other groups combined -- business -- receives not a mention. Deception by omission is a common Straussian technique. The weak are targeted while the real culprits disappear.

Harper's mentors

Harper studied under the neocons at the University of Calgary and worked with them to craft policies for the fledgling Reform Party in the late 1980s. Together with Preston Manning, they created an oxymoron, a populist party backed by business.

Ted Morton has turned his attention to provincial politics. He's an elected MLA and a candidate to succeed Premier Ralph Klein. But he did influence the direction of right-wing politics at the federal level as the Canadian Alliance director of research under Stockwell Day.

When Harper threw his hat in the ring for the leadership of the Alliance, Tom Flanagan, the Calgary School's informal leader, became his closest adviser. Harper and Flanagan, whose scholarship focuses on attacking aboriginal rights, entered a four-year writing partnership and together studied the works of government-hater Friedrich Hayek. Flanagan ran the 2004 Conservative election campaign and is pulling the strings as the country readies for the election.

Political philosopher Shadia Drury is an expert on Strauss, though not a follower. She was a member of Calgary's political science department for more than two decades, frequently locking horns with her conservative colleagues before leaving in 2003 for the University of Regina.

Strauss recommended harnessing the simplistic platitudes of populism to galvanize mass support for measures that would, in fact, restrict rights. Does the Calgary School resort to such deceitful tactics? Drury believes so. Such thinking represents "a huge contempt for democracy," she told the Globe and Mail's John Ibbotson. The 2004 federal election campaign run by Flanagan was "the greatest stealth campaign we have ever seen," she said, "run by radical populists hiding behind the cloak of rhetorical moderation."

Straus and 'Western alienation'

The Calgary School has successfully hidden its program beneath the complaint of western alienation. "If we've done anything, we've provided legitimacy for what was the Western view of the country," Calgary Schooler Barry Cooper told journalist Marci McDonald in her important Walrus article. "We've given intelligibility and coherence to a way of looking at it that's outside the St. Lawrence Valley mentality." This is sheer Straussian deception. On the surface, it's easy to understand Cooper's complaint and the Calgary School's mission. But the message says something very different to those in the know. For 'St. Lawrence Valley mentality,' they read 'the Ottawa-based modern liberal state,' with all the negative baggage it carries for Straussians. And for 'Western view,' they read 'the right-wing attack on democracy.' We've provided legitimacy for the radical-right attack on the Canadian democratic state, Cooper is really saying.

A network is already in place to assist Harper in foisting his radical agenda on the Canadian people.

In 2003, he delivered an important address to a group called Civitas. This secretive organization, which has no web site and leaves little paper or electronic trail, is a network of Canadian neoconservative and libertarian academics, politicians, journalists and think tank propagandists.

Harper's adviser Tom Flanagan is an active member. Conservative MP Jason Kenney is a member, as are Brian Lee Crowley, head of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies and Michel Kelly-Gagnon of the Montreal Economic Institute, the second and third most important right-wing think tanks after the Fraser Institute.

Civitas is top-heavy with journalists to promote the cause. Lorne Gunter of the National Post is president. Members include Janet Jackson (Calgary Sun) and Danielle Smith (Calgary Herald). Journalists Colby Cosh, William Watson and Andrew Coyne (all National Post) have made presentations to Civitas.

The Globe and Mail's Marcus Gee is not mentioned in relation to Civitas but might as well be a member, if his recent column titled "George Bush is not a liar," is any evidence. In it, Gee repeats the lies the Bush neocons are furiously disseminating to persuade the people that Bush is not a liar.

Neo-con to Theo-con

The speech Harper gave to Civitas was the source of the charge made by the Liberals during the 2004 election -- sure to be revived in the next election -- that Harper has a scary, secret agenda. Harper urged a return to social conservatism and social values, to change gears from neocon to theocon, in The Report's Ted Byfield's apt but worrisome phrase, echoing visions of a future not unlike that painted in Margaret Atwood's dystopian work, A Handmaid's Tale.

The state should take a more activist role in policing social norms and values, Harper told the assembled conservatives. To achieve this goal, social and economic conservatives must reunite as they have in the U.S., where evangelical Christians and business rule in an unholy alliance. Red Tories must be jettisoned from the party, he said, and alliances forged with ethnic and immigrant communities who currently vote Liberal but espouse traditional family values. This was the successful strategy counselled by the neocons under Ronald Reagan to pull conservative Democrats into the Republican tent.

Movement towards the goal must be "incremental," he said, so the public won't be spooked.

Regime change, one step at a time.

Donald Gutstein, a senior lecturer in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University,

Source

The we have this:

US War Resister faces deportation from Canada

Canada hit hard by war on Taleban

We won't win Afghan war, admits UK commander

And This

Omar Khadr:

He was 15 years old at the time and has now spent more than a quarter of his life in prison. Khadr has been in U.S. custody since 2002, when he was captured in Afghanistan and charged with murdering an American soldier during a firefight.

Stephen Harper, George Bush’s Fart Catcher

Well put I must say.

Q. What next after Osama?

A. Obama

Q, What next after Saddam Husain?

A. Barak Husain

And now we have a vice president. So I add a question?

Q. What next after Bin Laden?

A. Biden

I am wondering a lot about this co-incidence...! Make me popular :)

Thirty years ago there were several thousand salmon boats in California. More recently, as the fish became scarce, only a few hundred worked the coast. Then salmon populations crashed, and this year for the first time U.S. officials canceled all ocean salmon fishing off California and most of Oregon, and curtailed it off Washington....

The sudden decline of California's chinooks, most of which originate in the Sacramento River, has shaken scientists as well as fishermen. Typically several hundred thousand adult fish return from the sea to the river in the fall. Last autumn, only about 90,000 made it back, and fewer than 60,000 are expected this year, which would be the lowest number on record....

The sudden decline of California's chinooks, most of which originate in the Sacramento River, has shaken scientists as well as fishermen. Typically several hundred thousand adult fish return from the sea to the river in the fall. Last autumn, only about 90,000 made it back, and fewer than 60,000 are expected this year, which would be the lowest number on record.

HARTFORD, Connecticut (Reuters) - Connecticut's highest court on Friday unexpectedly struck down a ban on gay and lesbian marriage, making the New England state the third in the nation to allow full-fledged marriage for same-sex couples.

After four years of legal wrangling in the state court system, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that a ban on gay marriage constituted "cognizable harm" and infringed on a "fundamental right" of same-sex couples.

The decision, which overturns a lower court ruling, follows the legalization of gay marriage in California this year and in Massachusetts in 2003. It was hailed by gay rights advocates as a proud day after battles over the culturally divisive issue in several states.

Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell, a Republican, disagreed with the ruling but said she will uphold it.

"I continue to believe that marriage is the union of a man and a woman," Rell said. "I do not believe their voice reflects the majority of the people of Connecticut."

She said she was convinced that any attempt to reverse the decision, either legislatively or by amending the state Constitution, would fail.

By Caren Bohan

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (Reuters) - An Alaska ethics inquiry found on Friday that U.S. Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin abused her power as the state's governor, casting a cloud over John McCain's controversial choice of running mate for the November 4 election.

At the same time, McCain shifted his strategy. After a week in which his campaign tried in vain to seize the momentum from Democrat Barack Obama with fierce personal attacks, he adopted a conciliatory tone, calling on supporters to respect the Illinois senator.

The Alaska inquiry centered on whether Palin's dismissal of the state's public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, was linked to her personal feud with a state trooper who was involved in a contentious divorce with the governor's sister.

A report prepared for the state Legislative Council said Monegan's refusal to fire the trooper was not the sole reason he was dismissed but was likely a contributing factor. The McCain-Palin campaign had said the commissioner was fired because of poor performance.

"Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired," the report said.

The scandal known locally as "Troopergate" gained national attention after Palin, who was little known in other states and has virtually no national or international experience, was selected to be McCain's running mate .

An Alaska Democratic state lawmaker has written a letter to a state trooper official calling for an investigation into possible witness tampering related to the state's ethics probe of Gov. Sarah Palin by people working for or close to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign.

In a letter Wednesday to Alaska state trooper director Audie Holloway, Democratic Rep. Les Gara accused the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain of intimidating witnesses or pressuring people close to Palin, McCain’s vice presidential running mate, not to comply with subpoenas seeking testimony about whether Palin improperly fired her public safety commissioner.

"Starting after August 29, certain staff for the McCain campaign came to Alaska in an effort to block this investigation," Gara wrote in his letter to Holloway. Gara also issued a press release titled "Legislator Asks Troopers to Look at Possible Witness Tampering."

"There are rumors that upwards of 30 staffers have come to the state since that date," Gara added in his letter to Holloway. "I do not know the roles of the various staff members. Campaign representatives Ed O'Callaghan and Meghan Stapleton have held numerous press conferences in Anchorage to block the investigation. Since then three witnesses have failed to comply with legislative subpoenas, and up to seven more may do the same this coming Friday."

"Something has caused, or in the words of the statute, may have "induced" these witnesses to change their position," Gara wrote. "I do not know whether it is advice from staff for the McCain campaign, state counsel, private counsel, or from others, or whether these individuals have done this independently of advice or suggestions from third persons. But it seems a witness would not risk possible jail time that comes with the violations of a subpoena without advice of others."

Last week, a Judiciary Committee hearing was scheduled for witnesses, including Palin's husband, Todd Palin, who were subpoenaed. But none of the six witnesses who received a summons showed up.

Palin, who initially welcomed the investigation into her dismissal of commissioner Walt

Palin’s “Troopergate” scandal centers on whether the governor, her husband and several of her senior aides pressured commissioner Monegan to fire Mike Wooten, a state trooper who was in an ugly divorce and child custody dispute with Gov. Palin's sister.

In Alaska, the battle lines around the scandal have grown sharper in the past two weeks as the McCain campaign dispatched national Republican operatives to advise Palin and her inner circle how to contest and discredit the legislative inquiry.

Rescinding her earlier promise to cooperate, Palin then began challenging the legitimacy of the investigation and demeaning the professionalism of independent counsel Steven Branchflower, a longtime prosecutor hired to conduct the probe. Monegan in July, now appears determined to block completion of the inquiry before the Nov. 4 election when she hopes to become the next Vice President of the United States....

Palin’s handling of the case also raises more questions about her credibility as a “reformer” who says no one is above the law. She now seems to be counting on her new-found celebrity and the hardball tactics of national Republican operatives to shield her from legislative oversight.

Further, Palin’s resistance to the investigation may remind some voters of the disdain that President George W. Bush has shown toward congressional oversight, including a similar pattern of ignoring subpoenas issued to Bush’s top aides who were involved in the 2006 firing of nine federal prosecutors deemed not “loyal Bushies.”

With the McCain campaign battling Democratic accusations that a McCain presidency would mean “more of the same,” the image of Palin and her husband refusing to answer questions about an alleged abuse of power might recall the troubling image of Bush stonewalling congressional oversight.

Meanwhile, an Anchorage-based attorney plans to file a motion this week asking a judge to dismiss two lawsuits aimed at derailing the Palin probe.
Five Republican lawmakers filed a lawsuit last week to block the Legislative Council’s investigation of Palin claiming Democrats had politicized the probe and that it should be placed on hold until after November’s presidential election. Additionally, Fairbanks attorneys and business owners also filed a lawsuit hoping to stop the investigation.

The investigation into Palin’s alleged abuse of power was unanimously approved in July—weeks before Palin was selected as McCain’s running mate—by the state’s Legislative Council, which is made up of a majority of Republicans.

Alaska state officials are vowing to finish a report on the controversy by Oct. 10 and to weigh contempt proceedings against Palin’s husband and officials who work for Palin for refusing to comply with subpoenas early next year.