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Many people have the misconception that sanctions are an effective means to encourage a change of behavior in another country without war. However, imposing sanctions and blockades are not only an act of war according to international law, they are most often the first step toward a real war starting with a bombing campaign. Sanctions were the first step in our wars against Iraq and Libya, and now more sanctions planned against Syria and Iran are leading down the same destructive path. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) latest report, just out this month, there is no evidence...

Reporting from Mexico City— Money launderers for ruthless Mexican drug gangs have long had a formidable ally: international banks... Banking powerhouse Wachovia Corp. last year agreed to pay $160 million in forfeitures and fines after U.S. federal prosecutors accused it of "willfully" overlooking the suspicious character of more than $420 billion in transactions between the bank and Mexican currency-exchange houses — drug money HSBC Bank, is being monitored by U.S. regulators after a probe last year focused on bulk cash that the bank's U.S. branch received from Mexican exchange houses, money suspected to be drug proceeds....

President Barack Obama welcomed the decision, saying the U.S. would stand by the Yemeni people “as they embark on this historic transition.” Saleh signed the U.S.-backed power-transfer deal; (ending his 33-year rule), brokered by neighboring countries, Wednesday in the Saudi capital Riyadh in exchange for immunity from prosecution. If the deal holds, he’ll be the fourth leader to lose power in the wave of Arab Spring uprisings this year, following longtime dictators in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

The office space city officials have offered Occupy L.A. protesters to woo them off the City Hall lawn is only a few hundred feet away from the encampment...

From the massive student strike at OccupyCal in Berkeley to the police crackdown of the OccupyWallStreet movement's birthplace in New York City and dozens of actions and headlines in between -- from coast to coast, last week was an important, up-and-down week for the growing Occupy movement. Where the movement heads in the weeks and months to come, however, will be even more critical to the fate of this people's uprising -- and possibly to the fate of equality in America. So the eternal question presents itself again: what is to be done? After missing out on the fun of...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Looking to heap economic pressure on Iran over its suspect nuclear program, US senators on Thursday introduced legislation aimed at collapsing the country's central bank with tough new sanctions... The measure, crafted by Republican Senator Mark Kirk, would empower President Barack Obama to cut off any foreign financial institution that does business with Iran's central bank from the US economy and to freeze its US assets... "Without immediate and serious action, the Islamic Republic of Iran will have a nuclear weapons capability in the near future," Kirk said, adding: "We must act now or face the consequences...

Wall Street Analysts Everywhere Are In Agreement: THE WORLD IS ENDING Joe Weisenthal Nov. 18, 2011, 5:55 PM Image: Wikimedia Commons If you like your Wall Street analysis with a heavy dollop of rapture and Armageddon, today was the day for you. Blame the weighty issues of the day (Europe, mostly), and yesterday's big selloff for the spasm of bearishness. It started off with Nomura's Bob Janjuah. He said that any talk of the ECB saving Europe was a mere pipedream, and that if the ECB did go whole-hog buying up peripheral debt to suppress yields, then that would prompt...

This one's bound to catch the attention of the anti-Occupy sect: porn company Dirty Boy Video, which (we're guessing) specializes in videos of boys who are dirty, used a tent at in the middle of Frank Ogawa Plaza as the set for a recent video shoot. As Le Fag reports, along with the promotional stills: "this video could be a nice historical document in years to come, should the movement prove more than a flash in the pan." Obviously, there's a trailer, which is obviously Not Safe for Work or public Wi-Fi, of the "hipster twink themed" piece of performance...

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"The brave students, unemployed Americans, families and others Occupying Wall Street …. There's an economic emergency in America, and it's time for dramatic action to get our leaders to stand with the 99% instead of the 1%. "That's why on November 17th, SEIU members will be marching arm in arm with… the 99% protesting the failure of politicians in Congress to pass a (POTS latest) jobs bill. This movement of the 99% is only beginning. We will not rest..

Yes, you read that right. Bill Maher, after the mention of Herman Cain’s lead over Romney, says Romney is the only thing standing between us and the rise of the apes. This comment was made during an interview given by George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s Good Morning America, Monday morning. If this doesn’t make the headlines tomorrow, and if this isn’t one of the top stories on the MSM news programs, we will all know for certainty the double-standard hypocrisy of the Leftists. From Newsbusters, via Weasel Zippers. STEPHANOPOULOS: Yet, he’s, he’s still leading the field. Still is. I mean, he’s...

Herman Cain is running a pretty strong presidential campaign, depending on whom you ask. The press covers him intensely: In early November, Cain was the “dominant” newsmaker in a whopping 72 percent of all campaign news stories, (according to a Pew report). Cain’s rivals now see him as a threat, attacking him regularly. And Republican voters are following these cues, at least in theory, telling pollsters that they support him. But what about Herman Cain? A review of his recent activities, commonly referred to as a presidential campaign, suggest four big reasons why he is not really running for president...

Around the country, night workers at Walmart stores are being told to come in five hours early ON Thanksgiving. After having work until 7am that morning, they must get whatever sleep they can and then reutrn to work at 5pm for a 12 hour shift. How much time does this leave for them to spend the holiday with their family? Walmart wants to call their employees associates. No, they are just workers.

Annual Report to the President on Progress Implementing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (1st) "Predictions at the outset of the Recovery Act warned of the potential for wide spread fraud. To combat this, Congress and the Administration put in place mechanisms to deter this fraud, including enhanced project reviews by agencies and the Office of Management and Budget, oversight of all spending and contracts by a team of 12 Inspectors General who make up the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, and focused work by the Justice Department’s Anti-Fraud Task Force on ‘Recovery Act activities. " " Today, we are...

U.S. Office of Bi-National Intelligence in Mexico City. The OBI is a U.S. Gov. cluster: DEA, DIA, CIA, FBI, ATF, and others, authorized by the Obama administration in a document called “A National Anti-Narcotics Strategy for the Southern Border”

Rumors of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's death spread through the South Korean stock market on Tuesday, driving share prices down and causing the won to plunge against the U.S. dollar. The KOSPI hovered around the 1,915 point level, similar to Monday's close, but fell steeply at around 2:20 p.m. when the rumors hit the market. A Unification Ministry official said there was no substance to the rumors.

On November 2, 2011, I published an article entitled and asking the question, “Is Barack Hussein Obama II Really Bâri′ M. Shabazz, Born October 28, 1959 in New York City? ”, accessed at here. The basis of the question that I asked came from a November 2, 2011 breaking story published by Martha Trowbridge entitled, “Bâri′, Barry, Barack, accessed at here. In her article, Ms. Trowbridge’s contends that putative President Barack Hussein Obama II’s real name is Bâri′ M. Shabazz and that his date of birth is October 28, 1959, and his social security number is 084-54-5926. She says he...

In the past 12 months, the governments of Australia, the United States, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain and Germany have warned their citizens to stay out of almost 65% of Mexico's national territory.

By any normal rules of politics, Cain should be toast. So what’s going on? Simply put, the media and Cain’s detractors have over-played their hand. By Friday night, Politico, which broke the original story, had published 94 articles on the allegations in under six days. Every other major publication had followed suit. Every time he stepped out of a room, Cain was mobbed by reporters.

A crude racial calculus has been a part of our national discourse for centuries. Conservative pundit Ann Coulter is America's finest practitioner of it. "Our blacks are so much better than their blacks," she told Fox News' Sean Hannity in a display of pure racial taxonomy we haven't seen since the 19th century. "To become a black Republican, you don't just roll into it," Ms. Coulter said. "You're not going with the flow. You have fought against probably your family members, probably your neighbors, you have thought everything out and that's why we have very impressive blacks in our party."...