CARACAS, Venezuela - Give up your gas-guzzler and get a free car. That's President Hugo Chavez's offer to Venezuelans.

EU automakers seek €40 billion in government aid - PARIS: Just a week after a huge U.S. bailout for Detroit automakers, the European auto industry called Monday for an EU government handout of €40 billion to help it prepare for tough new pollution limits. - europe introduced the new rules let europe carry the can

Im not a "scientist", but 20.8 percent is 1 in 5. Who are these people, and what is their agenda? Halt capitalism? Ban US submarines? Return to the dark ages? Maybe it's the same "scientist" that told me in grade school that we would run out of oil in the year 1997.

Germany is now in the hot seat. The collapse of a rescue deal for Hypo Real Estate on Saturday threatens a €400bn (£311bn) bankruptcy that nearly matches the Lehman Brothers debacle for sheer scale. Chancellor Angela Merkel has been forced to pull her head out of the sand, guaranteeing all German savings, a day after she rebuked Ireland for doing much the same thing. The Netherlands has just rushed through a second, more sweeping nationalisation of Fortis. Ireland and Greece have had to rescue all their banks. Iceland is facing an Argentine denouement. During the past week, we have tipped over the edge, into the middle of the abyss. Systemic collapse is in full train. The crisis engulfing Europe, Asia and emerging markets, makes life easier for Washington. The United States is becoming a safe-haven again. The Fed can now hope to pursue monetary stimulus “a l’outrance” without being slapped down by the currency, debt, and commodity markets. Take comfort where you can.

Any Iraq combat memoir blurbed as a “must-read” by General David Petraeus deserves serious attention. Sure enough, Army Colonel Peter Mansoor’s account of his one-year post in Baghdad, where he commanded a 3,500-man brigade, is a valuable addition to the literature of the war.

Germany shattered any semblance of European unity on the global credit crisis last night by announcing that it was ready to guarantee €568 billion of personal savings in domestic accounts. The move – designed to fend off a panic run as it negotiates to save a sinking mortgage bank – is sure to anger France which, holding the EU presidency, tried to create the illusion of a common front at a weekend summit in Paris. Instead, the message coming loud and clear from Berlin is that it is every man for himself. Or as President Nicolas Sarkozy would prefer not to say: sauve qui peut Well done Angela! Fuck the EU!

A Muslim cleric in Saudi Arabia has called on women to wear a full veil, or niqab, that reveals only one eye. Maybe they should just poke their eyes out and really solve this problem.

Nuclear fusion energy project could lead to limitless clean electricity - once again fLance is chasing a no feecking hoper - The power of the sun is to be recreated in a new £1 billion science project which aims to provide a clean and almost limitless source of energy. - I doubt it will be sorted in my lifetime but great for the future generations

See link. Long story but worth the read

See appeasement does work.

Tsunami!!!!!! Made you look!

The EU does not protect the peace in Europe. On the contrary, it undermines stability in the continent by dismantling border controls at a time of the greatest population movements in human history, with many migrants coming from politically unstable countries whose instability spills over to European states. Through its senseless immigration policies, the EU could become partly responsible for triggering civil wars in several European countries. Maybe it will be remembered as the “peace project” which brought war.

Fuck these clerics, why they don't cover their freaking ugly faces too....

"Obsession is a film about the threat of Radical Islam to Western civilization. Using unique footage from Arab television, it reveals an 'insiders view' of the hatred the Radicals are teaching, their incitement of global jihad, and their goal of world domination."

“We have a good deal of comfort about the capital cushions at these firms at the moment.” — Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, March 11, 2008.

President Dmitry Medvedev says that if the Russian government does not take immediate steps, Moscow could lose the Russian Far East, a declaration that one Russian news agency called “unprecedented” and at the very least suggests Russia faces far more serious problems there than the Kremlin has acknowledged up to now. Speaking to a conference on social-economic development in Kamchatka kray, Medvedev said that “if we do not step up the level of activity of our work [in the Russian Far East], then in the final analysis we can lose everything,” with that region becoming a source of raw materials for Asian countries I'm confused. What the fuck is the russian fleet doing in the caribbean?. Why the fuck is rUssia threatening to re-annex eastern europe. Why the fuck is rUssia arming her cHinese partners? That's why rUssia will lose her far est. We are the least of her worries

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S.-led forces said they shot dead a leader of al Qaeda in Iraq on Friday who was the mastermind behind a series of deadly recent bombings in Baghdad. A spokesman for coalition forces said Mahir Ahmad Mahmud Judu' al-Zubaydi, also known as Abu Assad or Abu Rami, had been al Qaeda in Iraq's "emir" of the Rusafa neighborhood of the capital.

When will Hugo declare himself "president for life"?

Dead muzzies make me smile. Do they make you smile?

Refried beaner, anyone?

A year after Israel allegedly bombed a partially constructed nuclear reactor deep in the heart of Syria, the nuclear aspirations of Syrian President Bashar Assad have not subsided, with the country redoubling its efforts to develop a nuclear program, Asharq Alawsat reported on Thursday. According to the report, Israeli military sources told the London-based paper that following the reported air strike against the nuclear reactor at al-Kibar on September 6, Syria changed course and began a nuclear program based on the Iranian model of simultaneously building multiple facilities in various sites throughout the country.

Mental disorder?

Even if Congress backs the Paulson bail-out, the $700 billion blast cannot save the US, Britain or the world from the deepest economic slump since the Thirties.

It took a weekend to shatter the complacency of German finance minister Peer Steinbrück. Last Thursday he told us that the financial crisis was an "American problem", the fruit of Anglo-Saxon greed and inept regulation that would cost the United States its "superpower status". Pleas from US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson for a joint US-European rescue plan to halt the downward spiral were rebuffed as unnecessary. By Monday, Mr Steinbrück was having to orchestrate Germany's biggest bank bail-out, putting together a €35 billion loan package to save Hypo Real Estate. By then Europe was "staring into the abyss," he admitted. Belgium faced worse. It had to nationalise Fortis (with Dutch help), a 300-year-old bastion of Flemish finance, followed a day later by a bail-out for Dexia (with French help). We now know that it was French finance minister Christine Lagarde who begged Mr Paulson to save the US insurer AIG last week. AIG had written $300 billion in credit protection for European banks, admitting that it was for "regulatory capital relief rather than risk mitigation". In other words, it was underpinning a disguised extension of credit leverage. Its collapse would have set off a lending crunch across Europe as banking capital sank below water level. It turns out that European regulators have allowed even greater use of "off-books" chicanery than the Americans. Mr Paulson may have saved Europe. Fuck Old Europe. Mr Paulson should have let them croak. Hopefully we will still have the opportunity to fuck them, especially Christine Lagarde and her fellow frogs...

World leaders look to US for salvation as economies near abyss I thought the world had all the answers. You see. They are the WORLD, world is good, just ask Zimbawe, rUssia,bRazil, pAkistan, eUrope etc, etc. How about this plan: Shut the fuck up and piss off. We'll decide how to handle this mess.

Six candidates in Brazil's local elections have "adopted" the name Barack Obama to help set themselves apart from hundreds of rivals. . THIS WOULD BE FUNNY IF I DIDN'T LIVE THERE.

When the market is doing bad is a failure, but when it recuperates is...?

I love dead muzzies

Zimbabwe began officially trading in foreign currency Friday in what is seen as tacit acknowledgment that its own currency has collapsed. The change is expected to ease acute food shortages that have coincided with Zimbabwe's record inflation and economic meltdown. The central bank said it issued about 600 licenses allowing stores, supermarkets, gasoline importers and other businesses to import and sell goods for U.S. dollars, South African rand and other foreign currencies. The licensed shops are reminiscent of Soviet-era hard currency shops in Eastern Europe. With the collapse of the tourism industry as well as agricultural and manufactured exports, most of the foreign currency in the country comes from the millions of Zimbabweans working overseas and sending money home to relatives. Umm-Hmm-nomics 101

So now the UN wants to dictate what people eat. Shocker?

Gurkhas win right to stay in UK - and about time as well - they have fought and died for us for generations - had they not sorted this out we would have deserved every bit of stick the world threw at us over it - at last sense and reason rules ok in the UK -

People will have to be rationed to four modest portions of meat and one litre of milk a week if the world is to avoid run-away climate change, a major new report warns. The report, by the Food Climate Research Network, based at the University of Surrey, also says total food consumption should be reduced, especially "low nutritional value" treats such as alcohol, sweets and chocolates.

Considering they aren't citizens, who cares? If you're not a citizen or legal resident, then you are only allowed in at our discretion.

Pirates seized the Ukrainian-operated ship Faina off the coast of Somalia on Thursday as it headed to Kenya carrying 33 Russian-built T-72 tanks and a substantial quantity of ammunition and spare parts. The ordnance was ordered by the Kenyan government. One harpoon missile would cost about $700,000.

Syria a raghead state led by a crypto-islamic cult will soon disappear. An lebb-a-none too, let's hope!

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers have "taken leave of their senses" by rejecting a $700 billion (388 billion pound) financial bailout plan, European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said on Monday.

At least they are killing the breeders. I wish they would kill Obonga supporters.

Russia announced an overhaul of its strategic nuclear forces and army yesterday, in the clearest sign yet that Moscow may be preparing for a possible full-scale military confrontation with the US and Nato. Speaking after Russia carried out its biggest military exercises since the cold war, Dmitry Medvedev, the president, said Russia would build a space defence system and a fleet of nuclear submarines by 2020. This summer's brief war with Georgia, which led to a further rift between Moscow and the west, showed the need for Russia to have a strong military in a state of "permanent readiness", Medvedev said. Fucking paranoid mutants. They smell an Obonga win.

WHEN EUROPEANS WERE SLAVES: RESEARCH SUGGESTS WHITE SLAVERY WAS MUCH MORE COMMON THAN PREVIOUSLY BELIEVED COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study suggests that a million or more European Christians were enslaved by Muslims in North Africa between 1530 and 1780 – a far greater number than had ever been estimated before. In a new book, Robert Davis, professor of history at Ohio State University, developed a unique methodology to calculate the number of white Christians who were enslaved along Africa’s Barbary Coast, arriving at much higher slave population estimates than any previous studies had found. researchnews.osu.edu . . . Interesting to read and save for future debates and arguments.

If you were wondering about what LedZep looks like he is in this video in the upper right hand corner. Watch it up to about 3/4 of the way thru.