Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2009/apr2009/sflu-a30.shtml

The outbreak of a swine flu epidemic that threatens to assume global proportions is exposing the disastrous consequences of the subordination of all aspects of social life to the capitalist market and the competing interests of nationally-based corporate elites. The potential toll in illness, death and economic disruption is compounded by the scourges of poverty, social inequality and the lack of basic health care infrastructure in much of the world.

Link: http://www.truthout.org/050109L

The Democratic-controlled Senate on Thursday defeated a plan to spare hundreds of thousands of homeowners from foreclosure through bankruptcy, a bill President Barack Obama embraced but did little to see it through. A dozen Democrats joined Republicans in the 45-51 vote to scuttle the bill, which Obama had said was important to saving the economy and promised to push through Congress.

Link: http://theinfounderground.com/archives/TiU.Radio.30th.April.09-guest.Cynthia.McKinney.mp3

Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney exposes the Israel lobby in an Information Underground interview (Audio)

Link: http://www.henrymakow.com/luciferian_revolution_reaches.html

Little by little, the Illuminati bankers are dropping their mask and revealing the evil agenda behind current events. What is called "progressive" and "liberal" is in fact satanic. What is called "revolution" is aimed at overthrowing God --the natural and spiritual (moral) order-- and replacing Him with dictates of devil worshipers, the Rothschilds and their lackeys.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8482206

Reuters, Thursday April 30 2009 MOSCOW, April 30 (Reuters) - Russia has extended its ban on raw pork imports caused by the outbreak of swine flu to the U.S. states of Indiana and New Jersey, the country's animal and plant health watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said on Thursday.

Link: http://www.smh.com.au/world/only-7-swine-flu-deaths-not-152-says-who-20090429-aml1.html

A member of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has dismissed claims that more than 150 people have died from swine flu, saying it has officially recorded only seven deaths around the world. Vivienne Allan, from WHO's patient safety program, said the body had confirmed that worldwide there had been just seven deaths - all in Mexico - and 79 confirmed cases of the disease.

Link: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/more-americans-to-lose-jobs-face-tough-times-obama/59952/on

As the US clears the meltdown "wreckage", more Americans will lose jobs and face tough times before the recession is out, President Barack Obama said today after completing 100 days in office.

Link: http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=10616

In a move certain to fuel the debate over Obama’s qualifications for the presidency, the group “Americans for Freedom of Information” has released copies of President Obama’s college transcripts from Occidental College. Released today, the transcript indicates that Obama, under the name Barry Soetoro, received financial aid as a foreign student from Indonesia as an undergraduate at the school.

Link: http://socialistworker.org/2009/04/30/tortured-by-a-great-democracy

The backdrop to the Bush administration's torture memos that have caused a firestorm of controversy. THE OBAMA administration's decision to declassify and release torture memos written by legal advisers to the Bush administration was a long time coming.

Link: http://socialistworker.org/2009/04/30/using-civil-rights-to-sell-privatization

Corporate forces are driving the "school reform" agenda under the guise of pressing for racial justice. WHO'S BEHIND the charter school movement? Increasingly, the answer is: big money. The owners of Wal-Mart, the Walton family, are the single biggest contributors. Bill Gates follows close behind. Not exactly the types known for their staunch commitment to economic equality or civil rights.

Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46674

Sexual assault of women serving in the U.S. military, while brought to light in recent reports, has a long tradition in that institution. Women in America were first allowed into the military during the Revolutionary War in 1775, and their travails are as old. Maricela Guzman served in the Navy from 1998 to 2002 as a computer technician on the island of Diego Garcia, and later in Naples, Italy. She was raped while in boot camp, but was too scared to talk about the assault for the rest of her time in the military.

Link: http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4649.shtml

If we are to believe what our trusted international media report, the world is on the brink of a global pandemic of a new deadly strain of flu, H1N1 as it has been labelled, or more popularly, Swine Flu.

Link: http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1229.htm

Russian Health Ministry Officials reporting to President Medvedev today are warning in their reports that the World must prepare for a “tidal wave of death” of “unprecedented dimension” due to the current swine flu pandemic sweeping across the Globe at frightening speed.

Link: http://news.scotsman.com/world/Swine-flu-worsens-worldwide-as.5216573.jp

THE global swine flu outbreak worsened as US authorities said hundreds of students at a New York school have fallen ill and federal officials said they expected to see US deaths from the virus.

Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46665

A coalition of 19 human rights, faith-based and justice organisations is calling on President Barack Obama to investigate torture they charge was sanctioned by the administration of former President George W. Bush. The group, led by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), is proposing both a special prosecutor and an "independent, non-partisan commission to examine and report publicly on torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees in the period since September 11, 2001."

Link: http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22517.htm

Since the publication last week of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s report into detainee abuse in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantánamo (PDF), much has been made of a footnote containing a comment made by Maj. Paul Burney, a psychiatrist with the Army’s 85th Medical Detachment’s Combat Stress Control Team, who, with two colleagues, was “hijacked” into providing an advisory role to the Joint Task Force at Guantánamo.

Link: http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22514.htm

The BBC's American television soap Mad Men offers a rare glimpse of the power of corporate advertising. The promotion of smoking half a century ago by the “smart” people of Madison Avenue, who knew the truth, led to countless deaths. Advertising and its twin, public relations, became a way of deceiving dreamt up by those who had read Freud and applied mass psychology to anything from cigarettes to politics. Just as Marlboro Man was virility itself, so politicians could be branded, packaged and sold.

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/unitedarabemirates/5254291/UAE-US-nuclear-deal-threatened-by-royal-torture-video.html

A video showing a member of the royal family of the United Arab Emirates torturing an Afghan man has caused the Obama administration to hold off on a civil nuclear deal with the Gulf kingdom. The 45-minute video shows Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyanby, a brother of the country's president and crown prince, repeatedly hit a grain dealer he believes has cheated him. He strikes him with a cattle prod and beats him with stick which has protruding nails. A security guard stands by while Sheikh Issa burns the man's genitals and drives his four-wheel-drive Mercedes over him several times. The Bush administration was very close with these people for eight years, which just goes to show tortures of a feather flock together.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/29/the_nafta_flu

As the US reports its first known death from the global swine flu, the World Health Organization has raised its pandemic threat level. Several countries around the world have banned the import of US and Mexican pork products. We speak to professor and author Robert Wallace, who says the swine flu is partly the outcome of neoliberal policies that forced poorer countries to open their markets to poorly regulated Western agribusiness giants.

Link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/29/MNC417AH7A.DTL

A federal appeals court rebuffed the Obama administration's assertion of secrecy Tuesday and reinstated a lawsuit by five men who say a Bay Area subsidiary of Boeing Co. helped the CIA fly them to foreign countries to be tortured.

Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4BS56420081229

Researchers have found out what made the 1918 flu pandemic so deadly -- a group of three genes that lets the virus invade the lungs and cause pneumonia. They mixed samples of the 1918 influenza strain with modern seasonal flu viruses to find the three genes and said their study might help in the development of new flu drugs. And the study has allowed a small group of mad men to create a super killing weapon to the delight of the Pentagon.

Link: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/jstreet/430812?rel=hp_picks

That's the word from CNN. Specter, of course, has had to bend further and further right to protect his right flank from primary challenger Pat Toomey. Apparently he realized that was a dead end. The GOP base, which makes up primary voters, is getting more and more right-wing. So he's decided to switch parties and become a Democrat, hoping to preserve his political future.

Link: http://socialistworker.org/2009/04/28/fresh-air-or-hot-air

ONLY MONTHS into his presidency, there are troubling signs that Barack Obama is retreating from his commitment to real change on environmental issues.

Link: http://news.scotsman.com/world/Gaza-again-on-brink-of.5210908.jp

TENS of thousands of people struggling to rebuild their lives in the Gaza Strip after Israel's 22-day military offensive this year will face a second humanitarian disaster within weeks, because aid is not getting through, the Scot heading the British Red Cross international relief effort has warned.

Link: http://www.infowars.com/obama-nominee-advocates-internet-fairness-doctrine/

Sunstein would impose mandatory “electronic sidewalks” on the internet. These “sidewalks” would display links to opposing viewpoints, a concept described as a “Fairness Doctrine for the Internet” by Adam Thierer, senior fellow and director of the Center for Digital Media Freedom at the Progress and Freedom Center. “Apparently in Sunstein’s world, people have many rights, but one of them, it seems, is not the right to be left alone or seek out the opinions one desires.” Sunstein describes this as “libertarian paternalism,” an oxymoron if there ever was one. He also admits his control scheme is unconstitutional.

Link: http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1228.htm

David Frank of Jersey City wrote: “I work in 30 Hudson, which is the largest building in NJ and is right on the water facing the Statue of Liberty. I ran out of the building after a stampede of people began running out of the building as they saw the jumbo jet being followed by two fighter planes veer sharply towards our building and climb right over it. By the time I got outside, it was coming around for its THIRD pass, and I watched it level off below building height over the water and then once again veer sharply towards the building. Several hundred of us began to run away fearing for our lives before it climbed steeply and flew over our building. Whoever thought that this 'photo op' was a good idea should be removed from command...why couldn't this simply be done with Photo Shop? Hollywood can create an entire armageddon on film but the US military can't photo shop a plane by the Statue of Liberty?” Just a joke, you know, a little game. Sorry you were terrified for your lives. Think things are going to be better under Obama? Video

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1jjLRXmIck

Riz is joined by Daniel Barenboim and Stephen Hawking, two geniuses of their respective fields who are calling for a solution on Gaza - from outside the political system. "The attack on Gaza is similar to that on Lebanon two years ago. That killed over 2000, but did not achieve Israel’s war aims. I think the assault on Gaza will be equally unsuccessful. A people under occupation will continue to resist in any way it can. If Israel wants peace, it will have to talk to Hamas, like Britain did with the IRA. Hamas are the democratically elected leaders of the Palestinian people, and cannot be ignored. Israel’s response to the rocket attacks has been quite out of proportion. Almost a hundred Palestinians have been killed for every Israeli. The situation is like that in South Africa before 1990. It cannot continue." -World renowned physicist Stephen Hawking (Watch video interview.)[http://xpis.ps/xpisps/Default.aspx]

Link: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,621450,00.html

The current debate in the US on the "special interrogation methods" sanctioned by the Bush administration could soon reach Europe. It has long been clear that the CIA used the Szymany military airbase in Poland for extraordinary renditions. Now there is evidence of a secret prison nearby.

Link: http://www.truthout.org/042709R

Last week found Iraq swimming in blood once again. Attacks last Thursday brought the worst violence Iraq has seen in over a year, with at least 96 Iraqis killed and 157 wounded in two massive suicide bombings. Over 35 bombings have rocked Baghdad this month alone. There appears to be no end in sight for the escalating violence. For an Obama administration that plans to keep at least 50,000 US troops in Iraq indefinitely, look no further for a justification in doing so.

Link: http://theuglytruth.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/send-in-the-clowns-jewish-interests-attempt-to-turn-conference-against-racism-into-episode-of-the-jerry-springer-show/

On April 20, the day before sirens wailed and moaned in the Jewish state for a full two minutes commemorating the one event said to be the greatest manifestation of racism in mankind’s history–the Holocaust–the United Nations held a conference in Geneva Switzerland to discuss that same topic of racism and its role in real-life present day events. However, in contrast to the solemn, serious, sober demeanor demanded by Jewish groups whenever “racism” and how it affects their peculiar history of suffering and persecution is discussed, the gathering in Geneva might as well have been a scene from the 1970’s movie Animal House. Rather than proceeding as a serious-minded congress of world leaders dealing with matters of life and death for millions of people around the world, it was marked with catcalls, boorish jeers and locker-room antics on the part of Jewish “activists“. Hell-bent on preventing any substantive, rational discussion from taking place...

Link: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/430261?rel=hp_picks

When House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who has long championed investment in pandemic preparation, included roughly $900 million for that purpose in this year's emergency stimulus bill, he was ridiculed by conservative operatives and congressional Republicans.

Link: http://socialistworker.org/2009/04/27/capitalism-and-the-flu

Mike Davis, whose 2006 book The Monster at Our Door warned of the threat of a global bird flu pandemic, explains how globalized agribusiness set the stage for a frightening outbreak of the swine flu in Mexico. THE SPRING Break hordes returned from Cancún this year with an invisible but sinister souvenir. The Mexican swine flu, a genetic chimera probably conceived in the fecal mire of an industrial pigsty, suddenly threatens to give the whole world a fever.

Link: http://www.examiner.com/x-9423-NY-Libertarian-Examiner~y2009m4d27-Hundreds-rally-in-NYC-to-demand-Federal-Reserve-audit

At City Hall Park on Saturday – the location of the Tax Day Tea Party a week and a half earlier – hundreds of grassroots activists turned out to demand an audit of the Federal Reserve. Many of the activists preferred to abolish the Fed altogether and return to real money backed by something more than fairy dust and good wishes from Ben Bernanke, but there was general agreement that an audit was an important first step.04/27/09

Link: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2009/04/fox-says-no-we-cant-to-obama.html

Fox Broadcasting is taking a pass on President Obama's Wednesday news conference, opting instead to run a new episode of its crime drama "Lie to Me," starring Tim Roth...this is the first time in the Obama presidency that a broadcast network has turned down a request for airtime.

Link: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/04/carona-sentence.html

Former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona was sentenced this afternoon to 66 months in federal prison and fined $125,000 in a high-profile corruption case. Larry King dubbed him “America’s Sheriff.” The White House made him a homeland security adviser. He was groomed as a prospective candidate for lieutenant governor. Its the ones who make it that are the worst criminals, the ones that don’t get caught, the ones that are our ‘leaders’.

Link: http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/04/hindenburg-digest-more-tales-from-the-housing-bust/

Why is the media misleading the public about housing? The housing market is crashing. There are no “green shoots” or “glimmers of hope”; the market is worn to a stump, it’s kaput. Still, whenever new housing figures are released, they’re crunched and tweaked and spin-dried until they tell a totally different story: a hopeful story about an elusive “light in the tunnel.” But there is no light in the tunnel; it’s a myth. The truth is, there’s no sign of a turnaround or a “bottom” in housing at all.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/27/humanitarian_aid_is_not_a_crime

The Sonora Desert along the Arizona-Mexico border is a deadly place. Over the past decade, nearly 2,000 men, women and children died while trying to cross the border into Arizona. Dan Millis is a volunteer with the humanitarian and advocacy organization No More Deaths. In February of 2008, he found the body of a fourteen-year-old girl from El Salvador in the southern Arizona desert.

Link: http://www.infowars.com/flu-pandemic-hype-another-pretext-for-world-government/

During the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) Summit in Montebello, Canada in 2005, the “three amigos” (Bush, Harper and Calderon) released “North American Plan for Avian and Pandemic Influenza,” described as a “collaborative North American approach that recognizes that controlling the spread of avian influenza or a novel strain of human influenza, with minimal economic disruption, is in the best interest of all three countries.” The plan outlines how “Canada, Mexico and the United States intend to work together to prepare for and manage avian and pandemic influenza.”

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/martens04272009.html

One of the most audacious and cynical corporate-backed social experiments in living memory, the Free State Project in New Hampshire, has now shifted into damage control mode. Free State operatives learned this past week of my article that appears in the current subscription edition of CounterPunch, taking the first in-depth look at their plan to entice 20,000 out-of-state ultra libertarians and anarchists to move to New Hampshire and implant an extremist brand of free market capitalism: a brand the corporate backers hope will lead to a gutting of business regulations, environmental laws, and return the state to the right wing of the Republican fold.

Link: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/26/broder/index.html

I read David Broder's truly wretched screed yesterday -- in which he demands immunity for Bush officials from investigation and prosecution and attacks those who advocate accountability -- and decided that I wouldn't write about it until today because I didn't want it to infect my Saturday. For purposes of catharsis, I did immediately note on Twitter that Broder's article was "a tour de force of Beltway sickness - even for him"