Link: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,673192,00.html

US President Barack Obama suffered a painful defeat in Massachusetts on Tuesday. With mid-term elections looming, it means that Obama will have to fundamentally re-think his political course. German commentators say it is the end of hope. US President Barack Obama has had a number of difficult weeks during his first year in the White House. Right after he took office, he had to wade through a week full of partisan bickering over his economic stimulus package combined with a tax scandal surrounding Tom Daschle, the man Obama had hoped would lead his health care reform team.

Link: http://rawstory.com/2010/01/exclusive-kucinich-shreds-democrats/

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) on Wednesday said the Massachusetts election was a "wake up call" for Democrats and that his party had better change course or it could suffer devastating losses come November. "People elected Democrats in 2008 to change the country's direction," he told Raw Story in a nearly hour-long interview.

Link: http://rebelreports.com/post/346763455/defense-secretary-robert-gates-confirms-blackwater-in

In an interview with the Pakistani TV station Express TV, Defense Secretary Robert Gates confirmed that the private security firms Blackwater and DynCorp are operating inside Pakistan. “They’re operating as individual companies here in Pakistan,” Gates said, according to a DoD transcript of the interview. “There are rules concerning the contracting companies. If they’re contracting with us or with the State Department here in Pakistan, then there are very clear rules set forth by the State Department and by ourselves.”

Link: http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/21076

The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations may spend freely to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress, easing decades-old limits on their participation in federal campaigns. By a 5-4 vote, the court on Thursday overturned a 20-year-old ruling that said corporations can be prohibited from using money from their general treasuries to pay for their own campaign ads. The decision, which almost certainly will also allow labor unions to participate more freely in campaigns, threatens similar limits imposed by 24 states.

Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116688&sectionid=351020704

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez Wednesday accused the United States of causing the destruction in Haiti by testing a 'tectonic weapon' to induce the catastrophic earthquake that hit the country last week. President Chavez said the US was "playing God" by testing devices capable of creating eco-type catastrophes, the Spanish newspaper ABC quoted him as saying.

Link: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article19517

It is relentless, the pictures of terror-stricken people, broken limbs, and bloated dead, and many of us cannot stand to see or hear more. One has to ask: what are we to do with such information? Create pressure on governments to keep the assistance flowing? Perhaps, but there is no shortage of assistance being sent to Haiti. There is however a huge problem in Haiti’s limited ability to absorb the assistance. Whether it’s small and inefficient sea ports, one small and inefficient airport, a lack of decent roads, and a lack of government direction – all aspects of any place as poor as Haiti – it takes time for outsiders to come in, unload their cargoes, and organize a distribution network from scratch.

Link: http://www.aclu.org/keep-america-safe-free

Illegal government spying, indefinite detention without charge or trial and government-sponsored torture programs after 9/11 transcended the bounds of law and our most treasured values in the name of national security. There has never been a more urgent need to restore individual freedoms, due process rights and our system of checks and balances.

Link: http://www.zerohedge.com/article/scandal-albert-edwards-alleges-central-banks-were-complicit-robbing-middle-classes

We apologize in advance for the NY Magazine-style headline, but this is a report that has to be read by all Senators who are preparing to reconfirm Bernanke for a second term. When voting for the Chairman, be aware that all of America will now look at you as the perpetrators who are encouraging the greatest inter and intra-generational theft to continue,

Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ab6l8SwLqhlA

Investors say Congress would undermine the U.S. economy by clamping down on the Federal Reserve and predict that taxes on bank bonuses would persuade companies to move to friendlier jurisdictions. More than half the respondents in a quarterly poll of investors and analysts who are Bloomberg subscribers said that increased congressional oversight would open the U.S. central bank to political influence and hurt the Fed’s ability to conduct monetary policy. The House of Representatives has approved a proposal to submit the Fed to monetary policy audits, while the Senate is considering legislation that would remove the Fed’s authority to supervise banks.

Link: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/82230762.html

In the tense new world of air travel, we're stripped of shoes, told not to take too much shampoo on board, frowned on if we crack a smile. The last thing we expect is a joke from a Transportation Security Administration screener - particularly one this stupid.

Link: http://www.politicaltheatrics.net/2010/01/why-is-the-us-military-occupying-four-airports-in-haiti/

The United States is now operating at four airports to ferry aid and relief supplies to quake-devastated Haiti, a senior US military commander said Thursday. In addition to the Caribbean nation’s main port of entry, Port-au-Prince airport, US forces were also now at work at airports in the coastal city of Jacmel. They were also operating in the neighboring Dominican Republic at San Isidro and Barahona, US Southern Command chief General Douglas Fraser said.

Link: http://www.whatsonxiamen.com/news9834.html

KUALA LUMPUR: There is strong evidence that the Sept 11 attacks on the United States that killed nearly 3,000 could have been “staged” as an excuse to mount attacks on the Muslim world, said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. “I am not sure now that Muslim terrorists carried out these attacks. There is evidence that the attacks were staged.

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24460.htm

A new report alleges that the U.S. covered up the 2006 murders of three detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Conor Friedersdorf on why the GOP must reckon with the illegal, immoral acts of the Bush administration before mounting a return to power. With their victory in Massachusetts, Republicans are eager to defeat the Democratic health-care bill and obstruct a big-government domestic agenda that they regard as creeping tyranny. But an article in Harper’s magazine reminds us that the right is far less willing to question government and champion liberty in foreign policy. In the magazine’s March issue, writer Scott Horton provides circumstantial evidence that the United States government covered up the 2006 murders of three Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/21/she_had_a_desire_to_live

After Haiti Quake We speak with French search and rescue worker Jean-Philippe Oustalet, of the group Rescuers Without Borders. He talks about rescuing a twenty-five-year-old Haitian woman who was buried under rubble in Port-au-Prince for seven days. [includes rush transcript]