Link: http://lenox8081.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/blackwater-on-trial-murders-drugs-alcohol/

American security guards charged with killing two civilians in Afghanistan had criminal records, a Senate committee has heard. They were guilty of assault, battery and drug-taking in the past. The men were in Afghanistan with a subsidiary of the private security firm Blackwater, previously accused of murdering civilians in Iraq. Considered the largest and most powerful private military group in the world, Blackwater has gotten itself into deep legal troubles all over the world. RT Correspondent Lauren Lyster joins Alyona live in studio, after returning from the Senate hearings into the Blackwater company, as they face fierce opposition from American lawmakers.

Link: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/534817/the_missing_voices_at_the_healthcare_summit

President Obama and congressional Republicans arrived at the White House health care summit with talking points -- not just for the summit itself but for the after-summit jockeying to claim the upper hand coming out of a session that always had more to do with messaging than making progress to insure more Americans at less cost.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/obam-f25.shtml

In in a bid for corporate support on the eve of his televised health care summit with Republicans, President Obama on Wednesday told top CEOs gathered at the Business Roundtable that his health care reform would improve the competitiveness of their firms.

Link: http://www.economyincrisis.org/content/america-no-longer-independent-self-sustaining

We have heard it all before: America is the world’s only superpower, the US military is unrivaled, and it’s GDP thriving. But what you don’t hear is that our economy is not supported by wealth accumulation or production, it is heavily propped up on borrowed money. The US is currently standing on a rug of insecurity that at any time can be pulled out from under us by foreign creditors who own the national debt and are financing our government.

Link: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100315/kaufmann

Ongoing Congressional investigations into the AIG bailout have put the incestuous and murky relationship between the Federal Reserve and Wall Street in the spotlight--and put Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Fed chair Ben Bernanke in the hot seat.

Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7041663.ece

Warning: watching American politicians argue about healthcare can be seriously damaging to your health. Symptoms may include migraines, extreme fatigue and sudden violent urges. In the event of exposure to competing statistics — regarding "donut holes", "HMO deductibles", "reconciliation devices" or suchlike — seek immediate medical help.

Link: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/534817/the_missing_voices_at_the_healthcare_summit

Obama and congressional Republicans arrived at the White House health care summit with talking points -- not just for the summit itself but for the after-summit jockeying to claim the upper hand coming out of a session that always had more to do with messaging than making progress to insure more Americans at less cost.

Link: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d618a9a4-225b-11df-a93d-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1

The US is heading for a debt-driven “financial meltdown” within five to seven years, according to Judd Gregg, the outgoing Republican senator for New Hampshire. In a robust and at times testy video interview for the Financial Times’s View from DC series, Mr Gregg also complimented China for showing rising alarm about the US’s mounting levels of public debt.

Link: http://media.einnews.com/article.php?pid=73800

Billionaire financier Jim Rogers, former George Soros partner, predicts GB Pound is on the brink of a collapse, foreshadowing a huge global economic shakedown, worse than 2008/9. The UK Pound is on the brink of a collapse which will herald a downturn worse than 2008/9, it could well happen within weeks and the British government is powerless to prevent it. And this in turn will foreshadow a global economic winter that could come before the end of 2010 and make the last two years seem like a mild spring day.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/2/25/glenn_greenwald_dems_hiding_behind_filibuster

The Obama administration is holding a bipartisan summit amid renewed criticism over its refusal to push for a “public option” under healthcare reform. We speak to Glenn Greenwald, a constitutional law attorney and the political and legal blogger for Salon.com. Greenwald says Democrats are disingenuously hiding behind the cover of the filibuster to justify their political inaction on the public option, when they could approve it through budget reconciliation. He also discusses the response to last week’s IRS plane attack, the Justice Department’s clearing of Bush-era torture memo authors John Yoo and Jay Bybee, and new scrutiny of the private military firm Blackwater.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/02/25-0

On Monday, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) announced that although he strongly supports the so-called public option, he wouldn't vote to add it to the health care bill by way of the reconciliation process. Many senators say that passing the public option by way of reconciliation—a procedure which bypasses the threat of a filibuster so that the Senate can pass the bill with a simple majority—would come across as being too partisan. Now White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says there aren't enough votes to include a public option, even using reconciliation.

Link: http://www.truthout.org/us-using-iraqi-political-discord-justify-continuance-occupation57157

On February 22, Gen. Ray Odierno, the top US commander in Iraq, announced that the US was preparing contingency plans to delay the withdrawal of all combat forces from Iraq if violence or political instability increases after the national elections scheduled for March 7.

Link: http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/25/news/economy/initial_claims/index.htm

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance surged to just below the 500,000 level last week, and have climbed more than 12% over the past two weeks, the government said Thursday. There were 496,000 initial job claims filed in the week ended Feb. 20, up 22,000 from a revised 474,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said in a weekly report. The prior week, there were 442,000 claims filed.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/pers-f25.shtml

With the eruption of the European sovereign debt crisis, a new category has emerged in the bourgeois press—“profligate countries.” Commentaries routinely brand entire populations—beginning with the Greeks but extending well beyond—as having been living beyond their means. They must now suffer the consequences.

Link: http://rawstory.com/2010/02/ratehiking-blue-cross-spending-millions-bonuses-retreats/

California's Anthem Blue Cross justified its whopping 39 percent insurance premium hike by citing rising medical costs. But, it turns out, its parent company Wellpoint, Inc. has been spending tens of millions on large executive bonuses and fancy retreats.

Link: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/534585/obama_s_health_summit_faces_transparency_twitter

President Obama promised transparency in the bipartisan health care huddle at Blair House, and one open government group is doubling down on the offer. The Sunlight Foundation, a webby, nonpartisan transparency organization, announced it will route around the traditional media to provide its own interactive broadcast of the proceedings, with information that many TV channels can't (or won't) share.

Link: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/25/new-jobless-claims-rise-unexpectedly/

The number of new claims for unemployment benefits jumped unexpectedly last week as heavy snows caused layoffs to rise. The number of new claims for unemployment benefits jumped unexpectedly last week as heavy snows caused layoffs to rise. In addition, many state agencies in the mid-Atlantic and New England regions that process the claims were closed due to the storms and are now clearing out backlogs, a Labor Department analyst said. The department said Thursday that first-time claims for unemployment insurance rose by 22,000 to a seasonally adjusted 496,000. Wall Street analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a drop to 455,000. Bad weather can cause job losses in construction and other industries sensitive to weather.

Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119455&sectionid=3510203

Obama has been criticized for his failure to deliver on his promise for the closure of the notorious Guantanamo prison. Human Rights Watch has blasted US President Barack Obama's change in "rhetoric" rather than "policies" as US transfers more Guantanamo Bay prisoners to Europe. Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, says that vows of change in the US administration have been limited to presidential rhetoric, US media said Wednesday.

Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50458

Forty-something and unlettered, Sona Siddiqi never imagined she would become the most sought-after woman in her village of Ramzan Katiar. Here in the Union Council Gharo of Thatta district in Sindh province, some 125 kilometres from the southern port city of Karachi, Siddiqi is happily making a living by building earthenware stoves for the villagers

Link: http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/1-over-one-million-iraqi-deaths-caused-by-us-occupation/

Over one million Iraqis have met violent deaths as a result of the 2003 invasion, according to a study conducted by the prestigious British polling group, Opinion Research Business (ORB). These numbers suggest that the invasion and occupation of Iraq rivals the mass killings of the last century—the human toll exceeds the 800,000 to 900,000 believed killed in the Rwandan genocide in 1994, and is approaching the number (1.7 million) who died in Cambodia’s infamous “Killing Fields” during the Khmer Rouge era of the 1970s.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/02/20102254852185828.html

Australia has delivered a stark diplomatic warning to Israel, demanding its full cooperation with an investigation into the reported use of three Australian passports by the alleged assassins involved in last month's killing of a top Hamas commander in Dubai. Speaking on Thursday after summoning the Israeli ambassador, Australia's foreign minister said he had warned Israel that if it was involved in the passport abuse, it would not be seen as a friendly act.

Link: http://www.truthout.org/skewing-health-care-debate57192

President Obama met on Thursday with the glitterati of Capitol Hill in a much-ballyhooed confab on health care reform, and more specifically, the health of his current health care reform proposal. I was supposed to use this space to describe the details of that conference, to get into the nitty-gritty details of who said what, who made the most sense and What It All Means in the end. My intention was to do another running diary on the actual proceedings, but I couldn't do that, and for one reason: I didn't tune in to C-SPAN. »

Link: http://rawstory.com/2010/02/modification-debate-democrats-send-patriot-act-extension-obama/

Kucinich jeers: Congress is 'complicit' in violating Americans' constitutional rights. In the wake of congressional Democrats' reauthorization and extension of the USA Patriot Act, few elected Democrats have been as vocal about the post-9/11 security measures as they were during the Bush administration.

Link: http://www.rebelnews.org/opinion/war/190652-the-road-to-armageddon

The Washington Times is a newspaper that looks with favor upon the Bush/Cheney/Obama/neocon wars of aggression in the Middle East and favors making terrorists pay for 9/11. Therefore, I was surprised to learn on February 24 that the most popular story on the paper's website for the past three days was the "Inside the Beltway" report, "Explosive News," [By Jennifer Harper, February 22, 2010]about the 31 press conferences in cities in the US and abroad on February 19 held by Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, an organization of professionals which now has 1,000 members. I was even more surprised that the news report treated the press conference seriously.

Link: http://uruknet.info/index.php?p=m63648&hd=&size=1&l=e

The Israeli occupation forces have been accused by a Palestinian Researcher of carrying out "thousands of experiments on Palestinian prisoners every year" which have lead to an increase in the number diagnosed with cancer. The specialist in Palestinian prisoners' affairs, Abdul Naser Ferwana, himself a former prisoner of the Israelis, claims that "more than five thousand experiments using serious drugs put prisoners' lives at risk". According to Ferwana's research, dozens of former prisoners have been diagnosed with cancer months and even years after their release; some have died while others are living with the disease. He believes that the experiments prisoners have been exposed to in prison are the direct cause of the high incidence of cancer in this section of the population. Deliberate medical neglect by the prison authorities also cannot be ruled out, he added.

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/hribal02252010.html

Editors' Note: Counterpunches can be landed in a variety of ways. In November 2006, Kasatka, the Sea World Orca, attempted to drown her trainer. Yesterday, it was Tilikum’s turn—killing his aquarium trainer. This fall, Fear of the Animal Planet: The Hidden History of Animal Resistance, will be published by AK Press/CounterPunch Books. Below is a poignant excerpt from the book, which details the decades long struggle of two notable orcas: Nootka and Tilikum.

Link: http://goldismoney.info/forums/showthread.php?t=451250

It was an exchange largely ignored by the corporate media. Rep. Ron Paul asked Fed mob boss Ben Bernanke about $12 billion in cash. Paul said “a lot of cash was passed through — and a lot of people suppose it was passed through the Federal Reserve — when there was a provisional government [in Iraq] after the 2003 invasion. That money was not appropriated by the Congress as required by law.”

Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/anatole_kaletsky/article7039987.ece

You may not have noticed, but today is a very important day for US politics, world economic prospects and even for the global balance of power between Western democracy and benign dictatorship along Chinese lines. Why? Because today marks either the beginning of the end of Barack Obama’ presidency, or the end of the beginning.

Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7040245.ece

Washington refused to endorse British claims to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands yesterday as the diplomatic row over oil drilling in the South Atlantic intensified in London, Buenos Aires and at the UN.

Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7040078.ece

Private American security guards working for the US military in Afghanistan removed hundreds of handguns and automatic weapons from stores intended for the exclusive use of the Afghan police and used them on drunken shooting rampages that killed two Afghan civilians and injured at least two more.

Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7040166.ece

A night-time raid in eastern Afghanistan in which eight schoolboys from one family were killed was carried out on the basis of faulty intelligence and should never have been authorised, a Times investigation has found.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/business/2010/02/2010224195918247230.html

The president of Japanese automaker Toyota has appeared before US politicians in Washington to answer questions and apologise for the recall of millions of cars deemed unsafe. "I'm deeply sorry for any accident that Toyota drivers have experienced," Akio Toyoda told US congress members on Wednesday.

Link: http://www.tadamon.ca/post/5824

A call from Montreal artists to support the international campaign for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israeli apartheid… Today, a broad spectrum of Montreal artists are standing in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom and supporting the growing international campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the Israeli state. Last winter, the Israeli state launched a violent military assault on the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip, leaving over 1400 Palestinians dead, including over 300 children. Despite the official end of military operations, the blockade continues to this day, with devastating consequences for Gaza’s residents.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/26/opinion/26krugman.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

If we’re lucky, Thursday’s summit will turn out to have been the last act in the great health reform debate, the prologue to passage of an imperfect but nonetheless history-making bill. If so, the debate will have ended as it began: with Democrats offering moderate plans that draw heavily on past Republican ideas, and Republicans responding with slander and misdirection.