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Locked on 11/17/2004 9:45:25 PM PST by Admin Moderator, reason:
Thread #22: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1282666/posts |
Posted on 11/03/2004 12:20:59 AM PST by nwctwx
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P.s:- Anyone want to hazard a guess at whether John Ashcroft will be putting in an appearance today?
Dollar Falls as Account Worries Return
LONDON (Reuters) - The dollar hit 8-1/2 month lows versus the euro on Thursday as investors resumed selling the U.S. currency due to worries over the country's growing current account deficit, once the presidential election was over.
The re-election of George W. Bush to a second term in the White House did little to change investor sentiment toward the dollar, which has been under pressure for weeks and came within a cent of an all-time low against the euro on Thursday.
The dollar also hit a nine-year low against a basket of currencies on persistent concerns the U.S. economy might not be growing fast enough to attract enough foreign capital to fund the trade gap.
"It's back to the basics," said Trevor Dinmore, foreign exchange strategist at Deutsche Bank in London.
"The event risk has passed and people put on new short-dollar positions (sold dollars)." The euro rose to $1.2855 by 1051 GMT, having climbed from a Wednesday session low of $1.2655. It hit record highs of $1.2927 in February.
The greenback also fell to 1.1909 Swiss francs, matching a recent eight-year low. It also hit a 12-year low against the Canadian dollar.
But it was steady against the yen at 106.28, within half a yen from last week's six-month low.
Oil prices were again in play, following a bounce up in the previous session, underlying concerns for the U.S. economy.
The market was also looking to a U.S. employment report on Friday. U.S. non-farm payrolls are expected to rise by 169,000 in October, compared with a rise of 96,000 in September.
LONG-TERM DETERIORATION?
The dollar's renewed weakness means markets will closely follow Thursday's European Central Bank news conference after an interest rate meeting.
The vast majority expect the ECB to keep rates on hold at 2 percent but investors will focus on whether ECB president Jean- Claude Trichet comments on the rising euro.
So far, European officials have been relatively relaxed about the strengthening euro. But investors are wary of any signs of discomfort after a barrage of verbal criticism from the ECB helped to halt the euro's rise earlier this year.
"The line that has come from the ECB so far is pretty consistent, which is that the impact of high oil prices has been blunted by the stronger euro," said Deutsche's Dinmore.
Other analysts were more hawkish, saying another sign of lack of concern from the ECB could bolster the euro.
"If Trichet does not address euro strength in his speech, euro/dollar will break into the $1.30 handle," BNP Paribas said in a research note.
Victor Constancio, ECB Governing Council member from Portugal, said policymakers would discuss Bush's election victory and the U.S. budget deficit.
The rate decision is due at 1245 GMT and ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet holds a news conferene at 1330 GMT.
CHEAPER HOMES
Sterling also lost ground on Thursday after a downbeat survey on the UK housing market bolstered expectations of slowdown in the sector and highlighted expectations for a no-change UK interest rate decision.
The pound earlier fell to $1.8413 before edging back to $1.8461. It also edged closer to a 10-month low versus the euro, trading at 69.64 pence.
The Halifax bank said in its October house price survey that prices fell 1.1 percent last month, and that the UK housing market appeared to be moving into a slowdown.
This latest evidence of falling UK house prices further dampened expectations for another rise in UK interest rates, following five rate hikes since last November to the current 4.75 percent.
The BoE decision is due at 1200 GMT.
Here is a new piece from Jill St. Claire's site. It offers an interesting arab take on the usama tape which aired on al jazeera Friday. The last paragraph tells it all.
http://www.homelandsecurityus.net
The surprises of the Al-Qaeda leader tape - Abd Albari Atoan
11-3-2004
Is still it is impossible for us the knowledge of the influence size that the tape that the sheikh Osama Ben Ladin the Al-Qaeda Network leader issued on the American public opinion caused, and the course of the presidential elections, but what its saying is possible now and before two days of its holding that it whatever the result of these elections and any the winner was in it, the Al-Qaeda leader will go out the older winner .
We explain a more and say we it if the democratic candidate John Kerry won, he will point that he was behind George Bush 's defeat when am about to throughout this tape that he is still alive he grants and in good health, and capable assuming that he is a main player in the international policy, as he revealed also that the destructive war that George Bush launched on the terrorism, and entrusted until now 250 billion dollars and thousand and five hundred American soldiers, was crowned with the complete failure .
And above this and with the Al-Qaeda leader mocked the president Bush and said that he was distracted from the American security and the protection of his citizens lives with the narration of the goat story to one of the pupils to more than twenty minutes, the matter that enabled the general prince for the battles of New York and Washington from the execution of his task in the destruction of the World Trade Center successfully .
As for if the president Bush won the elections for a second rule, the sheikh Osama Ben Ladin can confirms that he was preferring his winning, and that showed clearly the statement that issued it in the last end of the month of March, and said in him Bush 's winning pours into the Muslims interest because he will continue his reckless politics in the launch of the wars on the Arabs and the Muslims, the matter who will lead to the increase of the hatred to the Americans in the world, and the events of the required awakening in the Islamic world by what leads to the overthrow of the systems of corruption and the inability and the judging dictatorship now, and broadening the scope of wars and the revolutions by what leads to the collapse of The United States as Soviet Union collapsed .
The Al-Qaeda Network leader tape, was on a big degree from the importance, whether with respect to its content or with respect to its timing, and the summarization of the main stations is possible in it the one that the stop on it becomes necessary is with care in the next points :
First : the Al-Qaeda Network after three years on the eleventh events from September is still strong, and the eradication of it did not take place totally as the president Bush said, then the organization leader appeared in good health, and wears the traditional Arab clothes, and it was self-confident that speaks in a sound language and did not commit solecism at all, the matter that means that it is not chaser, or afraid or confused .
A second : the Al-Qaeda Network repeated the organization of its lines and the collection of its forces, and Bat moves with greater confidence, by a proof that the sheikh Osama Ben Ladin and its deputy doctor Ayman Zawahiri they issued more than 24 audio tapes and visible throughout the three last years, and they succeeded in the delivery of these tapes to the Arab satellite Tv and AlJazeera a special, proficiently and without the American intelligence agencies managing and she is the most qualified in the world from the observation of the men place or the arrest on them .
A third : the ribbon timing and before few days from the start of the American presidential elections, and its inclusion of the goat story that came in Michael Moore 's tape around events eleventh from September, confirms that the Al-Qaeda Network leader Bat a clever political player, follows up the world events closely, and wants the investment of these events for the service of the cases that believes in them . He has addressed the American people this time in an effective way and a civilized, and not by the threat language and the threat the previous, when it said that its security is between its hands and is not between my hands Bush or my oldness and that the problem is not with the American people but with the politics of its unjust external government that kills the Muslims . And he gave for example that the Al-Qaeda Network did not attack Sweden, because Sweden did not attack the Arabs and the Muslims .
A fourth : it is clear that the sheikh Osama Ben Ladin with his addressing of the American people by this friendly way, abandoned and if temporarily, about the fatwa that issued it in February in year 1998 with the killing of Jewish and Christians, and she is the fatwa that raised several criticisms Fi Ousat the Islamists .
A fifth : the Al-Qaeda leader did not appear in this the line with dressed jacket the spotted War Ministry, as that he did not carry the favorite Klashinkov at him the one that seized it from a Russian general was killed in one of Afghanistan confrontations, but he appeared as a political leader that wears civilian clothes, as he appeared in good health, which confirms that all previous novels around his injury with a failure as Loi-Lem are accurate .
A sixth : the sheikh Osama Ben Ladin in this tape recognized the sound and the picture and the time the initial without any a reservation, with his responsibility and his organization about the planning and the execution of the eleventh attacks from September, after he was in the past blessing her and supports it only .
A seventh : staying sheikh Ben Laden is alive, and also doctor Ayman Zawahiri, and their publication of two tapes, the first in the third memory to the eleventh from September ( Al-Zawahiri ), and the second just before the American elections they give a credibility for accusations senator Kerry the democratic candidate of the president Bush with the failure in carrying out the arrest of the Al-Qaeda leader with the transfer of the task to the war lords the Afghans, which wasted a historical opportunity, because these are bad and bribed .
An eighth : the care of sheikh Ben Laden in this tape on the exposure of the Arab leaders, and their accusation of the corruption and the busyness with the bequeathing, and the forgetfulness of the massacres that is committed now in Iraq and Palestine . Also he maintained the presentation of himself that it is the defender about the nation cases, when he said that he thought about hitting the American towers started in year 1982 when the Israeli forces devastated Lebanon and occupied an Arab capital by a light that an American became green, then why they destroy our towers while their towers remain a safe . As he said in the tape .
A ninth : the sheikh Ben Laden and his deputy Ayman Zawahiri, succeeded in the gain of minds and many of the Arabs hearts and the frustrated Muslims, whether because of the massacres that are committed in Palestine and Iraq or because of the corruption of the ruling regimes . And the attracting is that the last tapes reflect a change on the thought of the men, then while the Al-Qaeda Network was concentrating on the parties cases in the Islamic world ( Chechnya, Kosfo, the Philippines is Thailand and Bosnia ) it started now that approaches the main essential case that the Arabs and the Muslims unites behind them and she is Palestine case then the case of Iraq occupation . And this direction started in the attack on the Israeli hotel and the attempt of dropping El Al plane in Mombasa, and the last attack since three weeks on the Israeli tourists in Taba region in north of Sinai .
In the end we say and unhesitatingly, that the first time in the history of the Arab relations the American the one that there is a factor an Arab or Islamic influence in the American elections and its results, negatively or positively . The habit has run that the Arabs and the Muslims are in the spectator site and it is not in the effective site . But appears that the Al-Qaeda Network leader tape, and the huge media care by it, an important precedent record in this framework, regardless of its size or the size of its influence .
Jerusalem Arab
1/11/2004
http://www.homelandsecurityus.net/surprises_of_the_al.htm
Thanks for posting that book referral, tmp02.
You mean to raise the alert status? Hmmm. Don't know. The tale is in the new unreleased tape, so to speak.
I am sad that he will resign for this next GWB term. John Ashcroft is such a good and honest man and public official.
DL, did ya have to do this? I'm trying to have breakfast!
And I pick today for my first trip to downtown Chicago in the past few months...
But I'm in a blue state. OBL wouldn't go against his word, would he?
Hee hee. Sorry. There really is never ever a good time for that particular mug, is there?! ;)
Excerpt:
ISLAMABAD (AFP) Nov 04, 2004
The disgraced architect of Pakistan's nuclear programme, Abdul Qadeer Khan, has suffered a worsening of his mental and physical health while under virtual house arrest, his lawyer said Thursday.
I read that to my husband yesterday ... he chuckled and said he'd read it as Arabic irony ...
I'm not so sure ... Arab "intellectuals" tend to have this total ability to weave conspiracy theories out of thin air, and the seeming ability to get large members of the Arab "street" to believe them ...
Thanks for posting.
Allah Akbar!!! Dasshole is gone!!! ;)
Thanks, JP....they all help!
I'm so thrilled that we all made it through this past year, (no attacks here, GWB reelected, our families happy and safe). Plwase, Lord, let us be able to say that things are this well next year on this date.
LOL!
Excerpt:
Missile defense system in Alaska deployed despite lack of testing
11/4/04
BY MICHAEL CABBAGE
The Orlando Sentinel
FORT GREELY, Alaska - (KRT) - Six white domes that open like clamshells dot a rocky, fenced-off field here in the heart of the Alaskan wilderness.
Beneath them, 80-foot-deep silos hold missiles designed to destroy enemy warheads in mid-flight. They represent the first step of a $25.3 billion shield against long-range ballistic missiles and fulfillment of a 2002 pledge by President Bush to field such a defense by the end of 2004.
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/nation/10097808.htm
Excerpt:
Airborne Laser faces `do-or-die' tests
BY MICHAEL CABBAGE
11/04/04
The Orlando Sentinel
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - (KRT) - Near the remote desert airfield where test pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier, engineers are working on a high-tech missile-defense system that could make Yeager's accomplishment look modest in comparison.
A gleaming new 747 jumbo jet sits inside a cramped hangar, the revolving turret on its nose a clear sign the plane will not be hauling tourists on long-distance flights. Instead, dozens of technicians are outfitting it with a sophisticated array of lasers designed to shoot down ballistic missiles from hundreds of miles away shortly after they lift off.
Program managers insist the Airborne Laser, or ABL, "will be as revolutionary to warfare as the advent of the atomic bomb" on the day it works. A growing number of critics argue that day will never come.
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/nation/10097825.htm
Donna,
Why do they always label themselves things like "the tolerant" before gleefully, and garbedly, describing the coming economic, physical, bloody, slaughter, etc. of the US ... ?
Dang!
I think in a couple of years, we may see a shift in world opinion towards Bush and the US.
The Islamists are nuts ... they want Andelusia back, they've threatened France and Britain ... they've been involved in slaughtering Russian children at Breslan and they've recently taken a Chinese hostage. Makes me wonder just why they want to p*ss off all the world powers at the same time.
Right now .. with the US, I kind of feel like a Brit might have before WW2 ... Churchill recognized the danger, others did not. I think Bush sees a definite threat and is acting ... and the world sees now that he is firmly backed by his country.
Kerry would have backed down, groveled, appeased and allowed the terrorists to attack again without retaliation. It would be back to the non deterrant strategy of the 90's ... which did lead to 9/11.
Anyway, I'm thinking that as the Islamofascists get crazier and crazier, more countries will begin to come around to the US ... at least I hope so.
Also .. remember, there is a definite liberal media in the US ... which has been feeding US democratic party based propaganda against Bush to the rest of the world. Some of the US liberal hysteria was stopped dead in their tracks yesterday ...
Anyway, perhaps the above is mostly wishful thinking. I just don't know, but I am guarded optimistic.
Well, I thought he was lying dead in a cave somewhere, too.
But, heck. He may not be dead, but he's still nuts.
Off-topic but here is one smart cookie in Florida:
Letter to the editor
Tallahassee Democrat
11/04/04
Slanted media are hurting America
Now that the election is over, we need to turn our focus to the biggest problem in this country right now: the media! Biased, factless, inflammatory news coverage is hurting this country not only within our borders but also all over the world.
The morning after the election, we asked, "Where's the coverage of voter intimidation and challenges at the polls?" Well, that didn't happen. But the media reported at length, to Americans and the world that we could not hold a fair election in this country.
The American media have become an infection against democracy around the world. We've seen the press jump on rumors and report them as facts. We've watched them push their political views on us hour after hour, and we've looked in vain for reports from Iraq that show the accomplishments of our soldiers and the citizens of Iraq in building a democracy there.
If this trend in the media continues, the world is going to have a very low opinion of democracy and America. I am proud of this country. I'm proud of the way we conduct ourselves.
I can turn off the news, but we Americans had better remember that the world is shaping its opinions based on the stories of these news agencies who represent Americans in homes all around the world.
ARLEE J. COLMAN
Crawfordville
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/news/opinion/10091376.htm
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