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South Atlantic: Britain May Provoke New Conflict With Argentina http://www.voltairenet.org/article164222.html

See Chavez video at bottom of page....

Since the 1982 war against the United Kingdom, Argentina has attempted to settle the Falkland/Malvinas Islands sovereignty dispute through diplomatic channels. But news that a British company has launched oil exploration in the area has brought bi-lateral relations to a new low.

The U.K. should be told that the balance of power has changed as Latin America has steadily moved towards a higher regional integration and a greater independence from Washington and its allies. As Hugo Chávez bluntly put it to H.M. Queen Elizabeth II: ’The time for empires is over ... return the Malvinas to the Argentine people. If conflict breaks out, be sure Argentina will not be alone like it was in 1982.’

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The Silent War: Israel's Blockade of Gaza http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDcZ57UaGUg

Israels blockade of Gaza has been in place for almost three years.  Building on existing closures and restrictions, the blockade means the delay or denial of a broad range of items food, industrial, educational, medical deemed "non-essential" for a population largely unable to be self-sufficient at the end of decades of occupation.

The blockade prevents access by sea, land and air, effectively closing off a population of 1.5 million Palestinians from the outside world.This short film examines what the blockade means for the people of Gaza, as they struggle to rebuild their lives over a year after Operation Cast Lead.

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98 Organizations Oppose Obama's Monsanto Man, Islam Siddiqui, for US Agricultural Trade Representative http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_20276.cfm

The following 98 organizations are writing you to express our opposition to the nomination of Islam Siddiqui as Chief Agriculture Negotiator at the office of the United States Trade Representative. Our organizations— representing family farmers, farmworkers, fishers and sustainable agriculture, environmental, consumer, anti-hunger and other advocacy groups—urge you to reject Dr. Siddiqui’s appointment when it comes up for a floor vote, despite the Senate Finance Committee's favorable report of his nomination on December 23, 2009.

Siddiqui’s record at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and his role as a former registered lobbyist for CropLife America (whose members include Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont and Dow), has revealed him to consistently favor agribusinesses’ interests over the interests of consumers, the environment and public health (see attached fact sheet).

We believe Siddiqui’s nomination severely weakens the Obama Administration’s credibility in promoting healthier and more sustainable local food systems here at home. His appointment would also send an unfortunate signal to the rest of the world that the United States plans to continue down the failed path of high-input and energy-intensive industrial agriculture by promoting toxic pesticides, inappropriate seed biotechnologies and unfair trade agreements on nations that do not want and can least afford them.

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DHS May Scrap Border Patrol Project http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=223100203

The Department of Homeland Security has ordered a drastic reassessment of a Mexican-border fence project that, due to delays and technology glitches, may never be completed. A project known as SBInet to install cameras, radar, and ground sensors along the fence on the border between the U.S. and Mexico was originally meant to be completed by 2014

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Senate set to extend Patriot Act without new restrictions http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/02/23/senate_set_to_extend_patriot_act_without_new_restrictions

The Senate is preparing to pass a short-term extension of some key provisions of the Patriot Act, setting aside changes to the law negotiated by a Senate committee last fall. The Judiciary Committee approved a bill that added new restrictions to the use of so-called national security letters, a procedure used by the FBI to demand records from U.S. businesses. But leading senators say those new restrictions might have to wait another year.

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Senators Propose Big Corporate Tax Cut http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/2-senators-propose-big-corporate-tax-cut/

Calls to cut taxes on large corporations may seem odd given that the nation faces a $1.55 trillion budget shortfall for the coming fiscal year. But that is exactly what a couple of senators, one Republican and one Democrat, would like to see happen. They jointly introduced a bill in Congress on Tuesday that would cut the corporate income tax rate to a flat 24 percent from 35 percent by eliminating some tax breaks.

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Blackwater Took Hundreds of Guns From U.S. Military, Afghan Police Using 'South Park' Alias http://washingtonindependent.com/77476/blackwater-the-senate-and-south-park

Employees of the CIA-connected private security corporation Blackwater diverted hundreds of weapons, including more than 500 AK-47 assault rifles, from a U.S. weapons bunker in Afghanistan intended to equip Afghan policemen, according to an investigation by the Senate Armed Services Committee.

On at least one occasion, an individual claiming to work for the company evidently signed for a weapons shipment using the name of a “South Park” cartoon character. And Blackwater has yet to return hundreds of the guns to the military. Blackwater subsidiary known as Paravant that until recently operated in Afghanistan acquired the weapons for its employees’ “personal use,” according to committee staffers, as did other non-Paravant employees of Blackwater.

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Marjah: 'This is not Fallujah' http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/71800

...Marjah is really just a microcosm for what the US is doing at this very moment around the globe -- waging a veritable war on the world, in Iraq, Pakistan, expanding into Yemen, Somalia, Iran, supplementing bombs and soldiers with militarised sea lanes, forward military and missile bases on every continent, encircling "enemies" Russia and China."

But Marjah is really just a microcosm for what the US is doing at this very moment around the globe -- waging a veritable war on the world, in Iraq, Pakistan, expanding into Yemen, Somalia, Iran, supplementing bombs and soldiers with militarised sea lanes, forward military and missile bases on every continent, encircling "enemies" Russia and China. 

The process is merely accelerating as the US loses its traditional edge in the world economy, outpaced by China . It is the logical next step for a deeply illogical economic system. It can’t be repeated too often: the US is frantically trying to consolidate its sole superpower status militarily before it loses the economic war.

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Eskom's R29 billion World Bank loan runs into opposition http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=566&fArticleId=5363304

A coalition of organisations launched a global campaign yesterday to block the World Bank from lending $3.75 billion (R29bn) to cash-strapped Eskom, the bulk of which is set to finance the Medupi coal-fired power station.They vowed to mobilise country directors within the bank to vote against the loan next month, and threatened to revive the World Bank "bond boycott", launched a decade ago to end structural adjustment programmes and lending to environmentally-destructive projects.

Eskom has become reliant on multilateral financial institutions to help fund the costs of its R400bn capital expansion as private capital for infrastructure expansion has dried up. It has also asked the National Energy Regulator of SA to raise electricity tariffs 35 percent a year for the next three years, and a decision is due tomorrow.

comment-also see...World Bank legitimising illegal Israeli occupation of West Bank http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/art-562479

Crimes Against Humanity: Forced Displacement http://ugandagenocide.info/?p=151

Indonesian Dam--World Bank Project Displacing Indigenous Peoples http://forests.org/archive/indomalay/indodam.htm

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LIVE: Taking Back Power with Daniel Ellsberg and Glenn Greenwald  http://lauraflanders.firedoglake.com

The Bush administration thrived on secrecy; Obama promised more transparency, but has yet to really deliver. What’s more, when information does come out, it seems that accountability is nearly impossible to get: the torture memos were released, but there will be no trials. We ask Daniel Ellsberg, one of the world’s most famous whistleblowers, and blogger Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com if there’s anything the people can do to take the power back.