Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2008/nov2008/obma-n24.shtml

The economic plan announced Saturday by President-Elect Barack Obama, with the goal of “saving or creating” 2.5 million jobs in 2009 and 2010, is a measure that has already been outstripped by events. The deepening crisis of American and world capitalism could destroy that many US jobs in the next six to nine months alone.

Link: http://www.rense.com/general84/respp.htm

Last Thursday in London, the case against Dr. Frederick Toben was dropped by German and European Union prosecutors. Toben was charged with using the internet to question the numbers and methods of the Holocaust, and online "anti-Semitism." This week European thought police are fighting back from this defeat. The Council of Europe announced it will no longer tolerate the disuniformity in European hate law enforcement which resulted in Toben's freedom.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/24/iraq-baghdad-law-order-justice

Nour al-Houda al-Maliki woke one night in March to the cracks of the bullets that killed her father as he lay sleeping, six feet from her. She saw four masked men. One she knew as a member of the Mahdi army, the feared clan that ruthlessly calls the shots throughout her south Baghdad neighbourhood.

Link: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0811/S00323.htm

MN U.S. Senate Hand Count: Challenged Ballots by Both Franken and Coleman Balloon on Day 3 Unlike GA's Still-Undecided Senate Race, At Least the Public Has Something on Which to Determine the Results in MN...

Link: http://socialistworker.org/2008/11/24/the-deflation-threat

THE RELIEF you feel at the gas pump and the grocery store could soon give way to even greater economic pain caused by falling prices. It may seem hard to believe that deflation is worse than inflation, especially so soon after working people endured gas prices of upwards of $4 a gallon, plus skyrocketing costs for staple foods.

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/23/AR2008112302364.html

PLATTEVILLE, Colo. -- A farm couple got a huge surprise when they opened their fields to anyone who wanted to pick up free vegetables left over after the harvest -- 40,000 people showed up

Link: http://www.myprops.org/content/Peter-Schiff-The-Truth-About-Bailouts/

As the Federal bailout bonanza prepares to spread beyond the mortgage and financial sectors to fill Detroit's depleted coffers, few economic or policy analysts have spared a thought for the destitution of the U.S. government itself. Put simply, our government doesn't have enough spare cash to bailout a lemonade stand let alone a bloated and failing industry that is losing tens of billions of dollars per month. Washington can only offer funds that it has borrowed from abroad or printed. Unfortunately, the nation is in the grips of a delusion that money derived from these sources has the power to heal. But history has clearly shown that borrowed or printed money only has the power to destroy.

Link: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/11/24/obama/

One of the first things Barack Obama did after winning the election two weeks ago was put an old-school political brawler in charge of his White House. Next, he saved Joe Lieberman. Then, he met with John McCain, and asked Hillary Clinton to run his State Department. For good measure, he's also apparently weighing whether to keep George W. Bush's Defense secretary, Robert Gates, on at the Pentagon.

Link: http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4045.shtml

“The winter of 2008-2009 will prove to be the winter of global economic discontent that marks the rejection of the flawed ideology that unregulated global financial markets promote financial innovation, market efficiency, unhampered growth and endless prosperity while mitigating risk by spreading it system wide,” wrote economists Paul Davidson and Henry C.K. Liu in an “Open Letter to World Leaders attending the November 15 White House Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy.”

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8071371

The U.S. government has bailed out Citigroup Inc, agreeing to shoulder most of the potential losses on $306 billion of high risk assets and inject $20 billion of new capital, in its biggest rescue of a bank yet. Citigroup's rescue marks the latest government effort to contain a widening financial meltdown that has caused the disappearance or bankruptcies of companies including Bear Stearns Cos, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc and Washington Mutual Inc.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2008/11/200811245437113348.html

Allies of Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, have won a majority in state elections for governors and mayors. With more than 95 per cent of votes counted, Venezuela's electoral agency said Chavez's allies have won 17 states in Sunday's vote.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/11/24

Today's global financial cloud got you feeling gray? Vermonter Jim Merkel sees a silver lining. Jim Merkel, a former military engineer living in Norwich, now uses his skills to help people live with less. (Vyto Starinskas/Rutland Herald)Back in 1989, the Long Island native was a weapons engineer who helped design a cutting-edge computer that could transmit military secrets, survive a nuclear blast and, a decade before the dawn of the BlackBerry, fit in the palm of his hand. Sitting at a hotel bar in Stockholm, Sweden, he was drinking in his accomplishment when a bulletin flashed on television.

Link: http://news.antiwar.com/2008/11/24/report-us-asked-israel-not-to-start-any-major-wars-until-obama-takes-office/

Amid several bellicose comments about the possibility of an impending Israeli strike against Iran Israeli Defense Ministry officials say they have been contacted by US officials who have asked them to refrain from launching any attacks against Iran until after President-elect Barack Obama takes office in January. Likewise, the officials reportedly have cautioned Israel not to launch its long-reported ground invasion of the Gaza Strip until after the inauguration.

Link: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0%2C7340%2CL-3627586%2C00.html

Many Israelis living in the United States have approached the Israeli consulates in North America recently, asking for their help in getting back to Israel. According to the report, dozens of Israelis who have lost their money in the financial crisis sweeping through the US have been pleading with the local Israeli bureaus to help them pay for a plane ticket back to the Jewish state.

Link: http://en.rian.ru/world/20081124/118512713.html

A leading Russian political analyst has said the economic turmoil in the United States has confirmed his long-held view that the country is heading for collapse, and will divide into separate parts. Professor Igor Panarin said in an interview with the respected daily Izvestia published on Monday: "The dollar is not secured by anything. The country's foreign debt has grown like an avalanche, even though in the early 1980s there was no debt. By 1998, when I first made my prediction, it had exceeded $2 trillion. Now it is more than 11 trillion. This is a pyramid that can only collapse."

Link: http://blog.heritage.org/2008/11/24/rahms-plan-for-mandatory-service/

There has been a small uproar around Obama’s call for a “civilian national security force” especially one “that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as the military. But many have said that these words were taken out of context. If you read the whole speech, they argue, it is clear that he just wants to expand the Peace Corp a little bit.

Link: http://indexresearch.blogspot.com/2008/11/will-israel-play-proxy-in-iran.html

“The terrorists are determined never to surrender, and are ready to kill and be killed." (Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi) “How much can go wrong in the two months before Mr. Obama takes the oath of office? The answer, unfortunately, is: a lot,” wrote Paul Krugman in the New York Times (21.11.08). ... “Most obviously, we’re in the midst of the worst stock market crash since the Great Depression,” he said. What Mr. Krugman did not address was the “Lame Duck” Vice President. Mr. Cheney will be meeting with President Olmert during his visit to Washington. Both men have had an interest in bombing Iran, the 4th largest world oil producer who allegedly wants/has nuclear warheads. To assess the present Israel /US vs Iran aggression, first it is useful to look at Cheney’s US-IRAQ statements, taken from Barton Gellman’s recent riveting book, Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency .