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Historyscope of the Year 2009 C.E.

Copyright 2009 by T.L. Winslow. All Rights Reserved.

On Mar. 1 the U.S. govt. loans AIG another $30B to go with the $30B already loaned, the $40B purchase of preferred shares, and the $50B in Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) funds to buy up toxic debt, for a total of $150B; Harvard Law prof. Elizabeth Warren (1949-) chairs the congressional oversight panel for the Trouble Assets Program, and in 2007 developed the idea for a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which Obama pushes; too bad, Congress later can't find out where all the TARP money went? On Mar. 1-4 U.S. state secy. Hillary Rodham Clinton makes her first official visit to the Middle East, meeting with lame duck Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and PM-designate Benjamin Netanyahu, and declaring U.S. support for Israel 'unshakeable' while sahying that the Palestinian Authority is the 'only legitimate government of the Palestinian people', also while going after the Israelis for withholding aid to Gaza. On Mar. 2 the 21st Annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney, Australia cruises on the buzz from the 2008 Hollyweird film Milk, and features Am. queen, er, comedian Joan Rivers. On Mar. 3 Britney Spears launches her Circus Tour, her first concert tour in five years in New Orleans, La. On Mar. 5 U.S. secy. of state Hillary Clinton proposes an internat. meeting on Afghanistan to include 'key regional and strategic countries', incl. Iran, even though on Mar. 5 she accused its leaders of fomenting divisions in the Arab world, promoting terrorism, threatening Israel and Europe, and seeking to 'intimidate as far as they think their voice can reach'. On Mar. 5 Pres. Obama holds a Health Care Forum, telling 120 reps 'If we want to create jobs and rebuild our economy, then we must address the crushing cost of health care this year'; the U.S. spends $2.5T a year on health care while leaving 46M people uninsured and having higher infant mortality rates than other Western countries; Obama decides to set aside $634B in his 2010 budget for health care reform; the $3.6T budget is titled A New Era of Responsibility: Renewing America's Promise; according to Newt Gingrich, 20-year-olds will owe $114,280.72 for the interest payments on this budget by age 70. On Mar. 5 NASA launches the Kepler spacecraft, which will orbit the Sun, becoming the first 'planetary census taker', looking for 'pale blue dots' (Carl Sagan), planets that could support life in constellations Cygnus and Lyra. On Mar. 5 a car bomb in a crowded livestock market in Hillah, Iraq S of Baghdad kills 12 and injures dozens. On Mar. 8 Pres. Obama overturns Pres. George W. Bush's 8-year ban on stem cell research, limiting scientists to cells culled from fertility clinic embryos that otherwise would be thrown away on Apr. 17. On Mar. 8 Pres. Obama announces that 12K U.S. soldiers will leave Iraq by Sept.; meanwhile the acne eruption keeps on as yet another suicide bomber in Bag Dead kills 30+. On Mar. 9 the U.S. Stock Market bottoms out below 6.5K, rising 20% by June 1. On Mar. 9 the U.S. and South Korea stage annual war games, causing the North Koreans to prepare for an invasion - like they don't deserve it? On Mar. 9 Michael McLendon (b. 1981) goes on a rampage in two counties in S Ala. killing 10, incl. his mother, then himself; he allegedly held a grudge against his former employer Pilgrim Pride. On Mar. 10 Students for a Free Tibet protesters march in New York City, Europe and Asia to commemorate the 50th anniv. of the failed uprising that sent the Dalai Lama into exile. On Mar. 10 a suicide bomber in a market in Abu Ghraib in W Baghdad attacks a group of Shiite and Sunni tribesmen and police officers, killing 133. On Mar. 11 17-y.-o. Tim Kretschmer (1991-) goes on a rampage at his former high school in Winnenden, Germany, killing 15. On Mar. 11 the Forbes Billionaire List is pub., with Bill Gates back at #1 after losing only $18B of his $58B net worth, with Warren Buffett slipping to #2 after losing $25B of his $62B; a record 332 people drop off the list, which falls from 793 to 1,125, with total net worth down from $4.4T to $2.4T. On Mar. 11 Pres. Obama creates the White House Panel on Women and Girls to advise him on the issues, invoking his white single mother and dead white grandmother. On Mar. 11 19-y.-o. Levi Johnston and 18-y.-o. Bristol Palin announce that they have split after he couldn't handle new baby boy Tripp (born Dec. 27). On Mar. 12 police arrest anti-govt. protesters in Islamabad, Pakistan as part of a plan by new pres. (since Sept. 9, 2008) Asif Ali Zardari (1955-) to detain anybody critical of his policies. On Mar. 13 (Fri.) Wall Street has its best week of 2009, with a 3-day rally after reports that the U.S. trade gap narrowed in Jan. to $36B (lowest since Oct. 2002), Bank of Am. reports profits in Jan. and Feb., and Citigroup claims its best quarter since 2007; the Dow gains 53 points (.9%) to close at 7,223, and Nasdaq gains 5 points to 1,431; on Mar. 17 the Dow is up 849 points (13%); the rally continues until ?; meanwhile Chinese PM (since 2003) Wen Jibao (1942-) utters the soundbyte 'We have loaned a huge amount of money to the United States. Of course, we are concerned about thesafety of our assets. To be honest, I'm a little bit worried. I would like for you [a Western reporter] to call on the United States to honor its word and stay a credible nation and ensure the safety of Chinese assets'; China has $2T in foreign reserves and is the #1 creditor of the U.S., holding $1T of its debt; he also outlines a $585B stimulus plan for China, claiming that the Chinese economy will grow by 8% this year - mighty capitalist of him? On Mar. 13 thousands of Protestants and Catholics unite at the funeral of constable Stephen Carroll (b. 1960), who was shot on on Mar. 7 as he sat in his patrol car, becoming the first policeman shot in Northern Ireland since 1998; on Mar. 5 two unarmed soldiers were gunned down outside their base, becoming the first British troops killed since 1997; on Mar. 14 police arrest three IRA members, incl. Colin Duffy (1967-), 'the IRA godfather of Lurgan', causing more violence. On Mar. 14 (Sat.) bedlam breaks out in Manhattan, N.Y. at a crowded audition for 'America's Next Top Model', injuring six and resulting in three arrests. On Mar. 14 a recording of Osama bin Laden is released on al-Jazeera TV, calling the Israeli offensive in Gaza a 'holocaust' and lashing out at Arab leaders, accusing them of hypocrites who are sacrificing Palestinians and collaborating with Israel; meanwhile on Mar. 13 Am. activist Tristan Anderson (1970-) of Oakland, Calif. is hit in the head by a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops in the West Bank, fracturing his skull and putting him in the hospital. On Mar. 14 former DJ Andry Rajoelina (1974-), head of the opposition emerges from two weeks of hiding and declares himself pres. of Madagascar, but pres. Marc Ravalomanana refuses to quit. On Mar. 15 ex-vice-pres. Duck Shooter, er, Dick Cheney calls the actions of the Bush admin. after 9/11 'a great success story', and says that Americans are less safe after Pres. Obama overturned his policies. On Mar. 15 leftist former guerrilla Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena (1959-) of the Farabundo Marti Nat. Liberation Front (FMLN) wins elections in El Savador, defeating conservative Rodrigo Avila of the Arena Party. On Mar. 15-21 more than 500 protests against the Iraq War are held, complaining that Pres. Obama is stalling in his promise to pull out. On Mar. 17 Pres. Obama stays true to his Chicago roots and has the water in the fountain in front of the White House turned green; actually his wife put him up to it; meanwhile Congressional Dems. get pissed off at news that Ain't I Greedy, AKA AIG (Am. Internat. Group) has given its employees $169M in post-bailout bonuses, causing them to take emergency action to get them back and consider letting the outfit go into bankruptcy. On Mar. 18 the state of N.M. repeals its death penalty, effective July 1. On Mar. 19 Barack Obama is the first guess on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. On Mar. 20 Pres. Osama, er, Obama releases a Special Video Message to the People of Iran: A New Year, a New Beginning, offering a 'new day' in U.S.-Iraq relations, calling it the Islamic Repub. to stroke their leaders, who brush it aside with the reply that Washington must show concrete change first, then inaugurating their first nuclear fuel manufacturing plant on Apr. 8; meanwhile a U.S. delegation led by Henry Kissinger meets with Russian pres. (since May 7) Dmitri Medvedev (1965-), who calls it an attempt to 'press the reset button' on U.S.-Russian relations; on May 5 U.S. defense secy. Robert Gates assures U.S. allies in the Middle East that their relationships with the U.S. won't be damaged by Obama's naive, er, open dialoguing efforts. On Mar. 20 the 6th Anniv. of the U.S. Invasion of Iraq sees Sadrists burn U.S. flags and call for immediate pullout - they don't believe them Enzyte ads? On Mar. 21 Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry (1948-) is reinstated as chief justice of Pakistan after being fired by ex-pres. Pervez Musharraf in 2007 for challenging his rule. On Mar. 21 Pope Bendedict XVI visits Luanda, Angola, uttering the soundbyte 'In today's Angola, Catholics should offer the message of Christ to the many who live in the fear of spirits, of evil powers by whom they feel threatened'; too bad, on his way to Africa he makes remarks about AIDS and condom use, saying that condoms aren't the answer to Africa's AIDS epidemic and could make it worse, and that the Church should promote abstinence and monogamy, bringing out the PC police, and causing the Belgian parliament on Apr. 2 to pass a resolution calling his remarks 'unacceptable', which the Vatican counters on Apr. 17 by calling it an attempt to intimidate him into silence - stick your remarks up what? On Mar. 22 the U.S. Treasury Dept. announces the creation of the Public Investment Corp. to purchase up to $1T of toxic assets from banks. On Mar. 22 black parolee Lovelle Mixon kills four police officers in Oakland, Calif. before he is killed, raising the bar for suicide by cop wannabes? On Mar. 25 responding to U.S. criticism that the EU is not spending enough to stimulate demand, Czech PM (since 2006) Mirek Topolanek (1956-) (head of the EU) says that Pres. Obama's $2T economic stimulus plan is 'the road to Hell'. On Mar. 26 stinking corrupt prosecutors in Passaic, N.J. do what we coulda guessed and abused, er, arrested a 14-y.-o. girl on charges of child porno for posting nude pics of herself on MySpace.com, which will end up marking her for life in the system as a sex offender - the prosecutors should be sentenced to go around nude for a year, but who can prosecute a prosecutor? On Mar. 26 Pres. Obama holds the first-ever White House Internet Forum; meanwhile his admin. issuing a warning to North Korea not to launch a rocket in orbit in Apr. after it was seen being put into position on its pad. On Mar. 26 U.S. state secy. Hillary Clinton admits that the U.S. shares responsibility with Mexico for its drug violence, with the soundbyte that traffickers 'are motivated by the demand for illegal drugs in the United States, and are armed by the transfer of weapons from the United States'; meanwhile the U.S. DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act is introduced into the U.S. Congress, providing undocumented immigrant students citizenship after they graduate from h.s. and earn a 2-year college degree or serve in the military for two years; too bad, it fails in the Senate by a 44-52 vote. On Mar. 27 Pres. Obama utters the soundbyte that the U.S. goal in Afghanistan and Pakistan is to 'disrupt, dismantle, and eventually destroy al-Qaida'. On Mar. 28 protesters march in London to protest the G20 meeting coming up on Apr. 2, which ends up wanting to bolt away from prior support of the U.S. and its jiffy capitalist system. On Mar. 28 (Sat.) a dam bursts outside Jakarta, Indonesia in the early morning hours, catching many asleep, killing 69. On Mar. 31 Pres. Obama rejects a $22B bailout request from GM and Chrysler after forcing GM CEO (since 1998) George Richard 'Rick' Wagoner Jr. (1953-) to resign on Mar. 29, giving GM 60 days to roll-out a new plan that trims brands, jobs and dealers; Wagoner gets a $10M retirement package, effective Aug. 1; on Mar. 31 Frederick 'Fritz' Henderson (1958-) becomes the new GM CEO (until ?); on May 11 he announces that he is open to moving the co. HQ out of Detroit (his own birthplace), selling its U.S. plants, and renegotiating its restructuring plan with the UAW, and that GM is likely headed for bankruptcy by June 1 after missing a $1B debt payment. On Mar. 31 yet another suicide bomber in Iraq strikes Mosul, killing seven and wounding 25, most of them police officers; meanwhile a weekend Sunni uprising in Baghdad bodes poorly for the future of a U.S. pullout, and Britain hands over control of oil-rich S Iraq to the U.S. On Mar. 31 two ships smuggling North Africans to France run into a storm off Libya, capsizing one ship and drowning 200. In Mar. Wash. state by 56.7% passes a Death with Dignity Law, permitting assisted-suicide; on May 21 terminal cancer patient Linda Fleming (b. 1942) of Sequim becomes the first to die under the new law. In Mar. the Obama admin. gives Congress detailed plans behind closed doors to send up to 80 narcs (narcotic agents) to Afghanistan in an attempt to disrupt the main source of financing for terrorists - 80 more billionaires on the horizon? In Mar. the Mexican govt. imposes a retaliatory $2.4B tariff on the U.S. after Pres. Bush cancelled the program allowing Mexican trucks to cross the U.S. border under NAFTA, saying they are old and unsafe. In Mar. former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia Charles 'Chas' FreemN withdraws his nomination to head the Nat. Intelligence Council after financial ties to the bin Laden family are revealed, along with board membership in a Chinese-owned oil. co. making deals with Iran; in Nov. he makes a speech to a pro-Arab U.S. group claiming that Israel has long been assassinating peace-loving Palestinian leaders, that the 9/11 attack was caused by U.S. support for Israel, and that if Pres. Obama attempts to pressure Israel, its 'American lobby' will use Congress to punish him.

On Apr. 2 after new DNA tests, 72-y.-o. insurance adjuster John Floyd Thomas Jr. (1936-) is charged for murder, after which police say he is suspected of raping and strangling up to 30 older women over 20 years. On Apr. 3 unemployed Korean immigrant Jiverly Wong (Voong) (1967-) kills 13 and wounds four in a rampage at a citizenship class in an immigrant community center in Binghampton, N.Y. before killing himself. On Apr. 3 the Iowa Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriage, licking the marital problem of Trish Varnum (1975-) and Kate Varnum (1966-). On Apr. 5 North Korea launches the Taepodong 2 comm sat to protests by Japan and the U.S.; too good, the 3rd stage fails, and it falls into the Pacific Ocean. On Apr. 6 an earthquake in C Italy causes buildings to collapse in and around L'Aquila, Abruzzo and other towns, killing 50+. On Apr. 7 a gunman opens fire in a court in Landhut, Germany, kiling a woman then himself; in the last mo. crazed gunmen have killed a total of 57 in eight separate rampages, causing many to blame the economy. It takes two, baby? On Apr. 7 the State of Vt. legalizes same-sex marriage, becoming the first state legislature to do it instead of a court - how do you like your sweetcakes? On Apr. 8 a bomb in a plastic bag explodes 100 yards from the Imam Mousa al-Kazim Shiite tomb in Baghdad, killing seven. On Apr. 8 British police arrest 12 men on suspicion of a 'very big' terrorism plot, then release them on Apr. 22, seeking to deport 11 of them back to Pakistan while admitting embarrassment. On Apr. 9 Pres. Barack Obama asks Congress for $83.4B for U.S. military and domestic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, pushing the cost of the two wars to $1T since 9/11; as a candidate, he opposed the same special troop funding. On Apr. 9 Shawn Merriman (1962-) of Aurora, Colo. is charged with running yet another Ponzi scheme, using $20M from 38 investors to fund a lavish lifestyle, incl. Rembrandts, which are soon put up to auction. On Apr. 10 a suicide bomber at a police station in Mosul, Iraq kills five U.S. soldiers and two policemen, and injures dozens, incl. 17 policemen and a U.S. soldier. On Apr. 11 a suicide vest bomber in Al-Iskandariya in Iraq (24 mi. S of Baghdad) kills nine and injures 31 members of the anti-al-Qaida Sunni Sons of Iraq movement; meanwhile another suicide bomber in Jbala (35 mi. S of Baghdad) kills nine and wounds 30. 4/11 (Cry Me a River Day) becomes an anti-9/11 for millions in the Western world, lifting their spirits faster than the Twin Towers fell on 9/11? On Apr. 11 (Sat.) one of the most powerful reality TV moments ever sees Britain's Got Talent rocked by the stunning debut of 47-y.-o. never-married 'never-kissed' Scottish soprano Susan Boyle (1961-) (contestant #432), who comes off at first like a frumpy bag lady or mental institution outpatient and endures degrading looks and wolf whistles, shaking her booty and uttering the soundbyte 'And that's just one side of me', saying that she'd like to have a musical career like Elaine Paige (1948-) ('First Lady of Musical Theatre'), then displaying a voice like an angel with the discipline and art of a diva, singing a brilliant interpretation of I Dreamed a Dream from the 1980 musical 'Les Miserables', bringing the entire audience to its feet and causing the 'don't judge a book by its cover' lesson to be learned by millions; her voice is compared to Kate Smith and Barbra Streisand; the Cinderella story that is later revealed of being born with brain damage, losing her 91-y.-o. mother two years ago, and fighting back against insurmountable odds causes millions to weep as they play the video over and over, incl. celebs Demi Moore (1962-) and Patti LuPone (1949-), who first sang the song in London's West End; good sport Elaine Paige offers to sing a duet with her; the Western romantic fantasy of lowly commoner Susan Boyle revealing herself to really be Queen Susan de Balliol, descended from the kings of Scotland, who deigned to grace her audience of commoners with her royal presence causes even historyscoper TLW to weep, recalling less powerful moments in 'Shrek' (Princess Fiona), Disney's Fairy Godmother, and Susan Osborne's 'What If God Was One Of Us'; she goes on to zoom to the top with 60M+ views of her debut on YouTube by Apr. 19 (most viewed YouTube clip until ?), and 93.2M views on 650 different placements by Apr. 20, with fans worldwide listening to her video many times in a row and telling friends, and Susan Boyle Fan Sites springing up overnight, becoming the biggest music sensation since the Beatles?; ironically British viewers can't access YouTube videos because of a revenue dispute, and Sony Music, owner of the TV show fails to make any money from all the views; she soon signs a recording contract with tight-fisted Simon's Sysco Music Co., becoming the big music story of 2009, the waste of her talent finally ended; her cat Pebbles becomes the world's most famous cat?; her home province of West Lothian becomes an immediate travel destination ('It's a sort of collection of, it's a collection of, uh, villages, I had to think there'); too bad, in 1999 she recorded Cry Me a River and was overlooked, selling only 1K copies for charity, which become instant collectors items; on Apr. 22 she gets a new look, then on Apr. 24 dyes her hair for $50; meanwhile on Apr. 18 12-y.-o. Welsh-Iranian Shaheen Jafargholi (1997-) from Swansea appears on the show, causing a mini-stir with a rendition of 'Who's Lovin' You' by the Jackson Five, followed on Apr. 25 by 10-y.-o. Hollie Steele (1999-), but at least the producers tried?; on May 25 buffed-up Susan sings Memory from Cats, the previous situation reversed, with all the hype of this big star putting her under tremendous pressure she isn't used to, causing her to start off-key, then regroup and finish strong again, going on to the finals on May 30 after the paparazzi put her through hell on May 27 in the Wembley Plaza Hotel in London, doing 'I Dreamed a Dream' again well, but ending up #2 after the dance troupe Diversity. On Apr. 13 U.S. Navy snipers kill three Somali pirates holding freighter capt. Richard Phillips, who was kidnapped from his ship the Maersk Alabama on Apr. 8 and held in a lifeboat, embarrassing the U.S.; he is rescued unharmed; on Apr. 30 he calls for military protection and armed crew officers to thwart future attacks. An Apr. 13 Pakistani pres. Asif Ali Zardari folds and signs a regulation putting a NW district under Islamic Sharia law, appeasing militants who have been brutalizing the Swat Valley for two years. On Apr. 13 a fire in a 3-story shelter for homeless families in Kamien Pomorski burns down, killing 21. On Apr. 15 Neo-Boston Tea Party rallies are held in several U.S. cities, incl. Denver, Colo. against Obama's bailout policies, with some carrying signs calling him a traitor; Tex. Repub. gov. (since 2000) James Richard 'Rick' Perry (1950-) tells a cheering crowd in Austin that the Obama admin. has abandoned the founding U.S. principles of limited govt., and strangled Americans with spending, debt and taxation, and that if it keeps up Texas might secede - who's had a Jimmy Dean breakfast this morning? On Apr. 15 300 Afghan women protest in Kabul a new law that imposes disgusting medieval Islamic Taliban Sharia law on women, esp. the right to marital rape; men respond by stoning them - they should have that infidel women's libber crap f*cked out of them? On Apr. 15 Time mag. goofs and sends incorrect eds. of the debut issue of its new mag. Mine, which lets subscribers tailor their issues by selecting five of eight mag. titles (really a printed RSS feed). On Apr. 16 Pres. Obama arrives in Mexico City and meets with Mexican pres. Felipe Calderon, who compares him to JFK, after which Obama says that he will not seek to renew the U.S. assault weapons ban but will instead work to stop their flow to Mexico, saying that the Mexican drug war is 'sowing chaos in our communities'; Obama then attends the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, where the restoration of relations with Cuba is on the table, with Calderon wanting to play the matchmaker since Mexico is friendly with both countries, which Obama decides to pass on for now; on Apr. 20 the summit ends with Obama outlining a broad agenda incl. a more central role for the U.S. in global alliances, with the soundbyte 'We do our best to promote our ideals and our values by our example'; after Obama calls for a 'new beginning' with Cuba, Raul Castro says that he is willing to sit down with him and discuss 'everything, everything, everything', causing his retired brother Fidel Castro to tell the press that Obama 'misinterpreted' his remarks, and that freeing political prisoners is out of the question; on Apr. 17 Obama shakes hands with Venezuelan pres. (since 1999) Hugo Chavez, who is known for calling Pres. Bush a 'devil'; Chavez hands Obama the 1971 book Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, by Uruguayan author Eduardo Hughes Galeano (1940-), which exposes U.S. and Euro imperialism in Latin Am. for the last five cents., and is written in Spanish, causing Obama to think it was written by Chavez; it becomes an immediate bestseller on Amazon.com, jumping from #54,295 to #2 in three days - did he feel amazingly boxed in or grateful to know what's wrong? Take our word for it, and ci ya later? On Apr. 16 Memos on Torture written during the Bush years describing inhumane torture techniques used by the CIA are pub. after the agents involved are shielded from prosecution; the CIA admits to destroying 12 tapes of particularly devilish interrogations, plus 80 others they claim weren't so bad; a 2005 Justice Dept. memo shows that they gave Abu Zubaydah 83 waterboardings in Aug. 2002 alone, all of which pisses off lawmakers into calling for more extensive inquiries into the Beat the Bush admin., incl. calls for prosecution anyway, causing Obama on Apr. 21 to say he'll have the new U.S. atty. gen. look into it, and recommend Congress to set up an independent commission rather than a congressional panel. On Apr. 18 after pleas by Pakistani pres. Asif Ali Zardari, who says 'I still fear that the understanding of the danger that Pakistan faces does not register fully in the minds of the world... If we lose, you lose. If we lose, the world loses', the U.S., Japan, EU and Saudi Arabia promise $5B in aid to Pakistan. On Apr. 19 22 polo horses from the Venezuelan-owned Lechuza polo team collapse and die in West Palm Beach, Fla. shortly before the start of the U.S. Open after being given a botched Biodyl vitamin-mineral prescription, which was illegal to bring into the U.S., so they had it mixed locally. On Apr. 19 a U.S. missile strike in S Waziristan, Pakistan on the Afghan border kills al-Qaida three militants and destroys a truck filled with high explosives that could have been used in a suicide bombing; he incident shows the growing strength of al-Qaida in shaky Pakistan. On Apr. 19 U.S. homeland secy. (since Jan. 21) Janet Napolitano goes on CNN's State of the Union, and says that crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally isn't a crime; too bad, Section 8, Title 1325 of the U.S. Criminal Code says it is - call it on-the-job training? As smooth as a baby's behind? On Apr. 19 the Donald Trump Miss USA 2009 Pageant in Las Vegas, Nev. (known for not promoting tons of non-whites over the heads of whites but being mostly fair, until now?) is won by blonde-blue Miss N.C. Kristen Jeannine Dalton (1986-) (not to be confused by the redheaded actress Kristen Dalton, b. 1966) after gorgeous blonde-blue Miss Calif. Carrie Prejean (1987-) (a Bible-believing Creationist) truthfully answers a question about same-sex marriage by ugly bigmouth gay celeb Perez Hilton (1978-), saying 'I do believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, no offense to anybody out there', after which Hilton gives away that he voted her down for her beliefs, calling her answer 'the worst answer in pageant history', and adding on his blog 'She lost not because she doesn't believe in gay marriage, she lost because she's a dumb bitch' (duh, like him?); on Apr. 21 Repub. state rep. (since 2002) Jay Love (1968-) introduces a resolution to the Ala. legislature to praise Prejean for standing by her beliefs; the gays then begin a systematic harassment campaign, announcing that she had breasts implants and dredging up old photos to use against her, but Donald Trump intervenes, allowing her to keep her crown; meanwhile the U.S. liberal media takes to calling her comments 'controversial'. On Apr. 20 British ambassador Peter Gooderham leads dozens of diplomats in walking out of a U.N. Conference on Racism in Geneva after Iranian PM Imadinnajacket calls Israel a 'cruel and oppressive racist regime', and says that the state of Israel was created 'on the pretext of Jewish suffering' in WWII; protesters dressed in clown wigs disrupt Dinnajacket, shouting 'racist' in French and throwing something at him; meanwhile the U.S., Israel, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands boycott the conference, which soon falls apart. On Apr. 20 Pres. Obama orders his cabinet to find ways to cut spending by $100B, er, $100M, admitting that it's a 'drop in the bucket' but that there's a 'confidence gap' that needs to be overcome; meanwhile he visits the CIA and gives them a pep talk, saying 'I know the last few days have been difficult. You need to know you've got my full support', but adding that they have to follow all his new rules. On Apr. 20 a suicide bomber in Baqouba, Iraq wounds eight U.S soldiers - I'll be baaaq? Last year we had Made-Off, now we have Mark-Off? On Apr. 20 police arrest suspected 'Craigslist Killer' Philip 'Phil' Markoff (1985-), a medical student accused of contacting escort services in Craigslist then meeting with their hos in upscale hotels and robbing them to mark off, er, pay off gambling debts, collecting their panties as souvenirs and leaving his tracks all over the Internet, making him easy to catch after he went too far on Apr. 14 and killed 26-y.-o. Julissa Brisman, upping his police priority; his babe Megan McAllister stands by him at first, then cancels the Aug. 14 wedding on Apr. 27. On Apr. 21 Bank of Am. Corp. posts a first quarter profit of $2.81B. On Apr. 21 the College Board, known for its SAT test pub. report calling on Congress to give illegal immigrants tuition aid to help them become educated illegal immigrants, er, citizens. On Apr. 21 animal rights activist Daniel Andreas San Diego (1978-) becomes the first domestic terrorist to make the FBI Most Wanted Terrorist List - where in the world is Daniel San Diego? On Apr. 22 the IMF says that the world economy is going to shrink by 1.3% this year, the first shrinkage in 6 decades in a 'Great Recession'; in Jan. they predicted 0.5% growth. On Apr. 22 (morning) Freddie Mac CFO David Kellerman (b. 1967), who was blamed for causing the U.S. mortgage crisis is found dead by suicide by hanging in his $900K home in Fairfax County, Va. On Apr. 22 the FDA bows to a judge's order and agrees to make the 'morning after pill' RU-486 available to 17-y.-os. On Apr. 22 the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments on a reverse discrimination suit by New York City firefighters, appearing divided. On Apr. 22 elections in South Africa (4th since the 1994 transition to black majority rule) give a V to the African Nat. Congress (ANC); despite corruption investigations and a rape acquittal, Zulu-born ANC pres. (since Dec. 18, 2007) Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (1942-) becomes pres. of South Africa, being sworn in on on May 9 (until ?); which of his six wives will be first lady? On Apr. 22-23 a fire in Myrtle Beach, S.C. causes evacuation. On Apr. 23 two suicide bomb attacks in Iraq kill 70; meanwhile the Iraqi govt. finally captures al-Qaida leader Abu Abdaullah al-Rashid al-Baghdadi, leader of the Mujahideen Shura Council, who claims to be head of the Islamic State of Iraq, and shows photos on Aug. 28 to prove it. On Apr. 23 AP announces that it has computed that at least 110,600 Iraqis have been killed in the Iraqi War since 2003; meanwhile an AP poll reveals that 48% of Americans believe the U.S. is on the right track despite the trillions in debt and bailouts, and millions of jobless; 41% disagree; meanwhile the Obama admin. asks the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse its Apr. 1, 1986 decision in Michigan v. Jackson that police can't use confessions from suspects unless they have their lawyer present, pissing off civil libertarians - get me a bent coathanger? What was that about Mexico becoming a failed state, and going to the swine? On Apr. 24 the World Health Org. convenes an emergency meeting after reports of a deadly outbreak of 800+ 'influenza-like' cases in Mexico caused by a new strain of swine flu combined with bird flu and human flu from a pig farm near Veracruz that killed 16-60 late in the flu season, incl. some young strong victims, stirring fears of a super pandemic to beat all pandemics; Maria Adela Gutierrez (b. 1969), who died Apr. 13 in Oaxaca is the first known Mexican swine flu victim; is this the apocalyptic World's Seventh Killer Plague?; on Apr. 26 after 20 cases are confirmed in the U.S., the U.S. govt. declares the 2009 Mexican (North American) H1N1 Swine Flu Outbreak a public health emergency; on Apr. 27 the first U.S. death is a 23-mo. infant in Houston, Tex., which is officially confirmed on Apr. 29; cases are reported in Canada, Britain, Germany, Spain, Israel, Austria and New Zealand, but no deaths (until ?); after the flu proves less virulent than expected, Mexico City lifts its office bldg. and market closures after five days, with the death toll at only 42. On Apr. 24 two female Sunni suicide purse bombers kill 66 and injure 120+ (incl. 80 Iranian pilgrims) outside the Shiite Imam Mousa al-Kazim Tomb in Kazimiyah. On Apr. 24 Pres. Obama commemorates the anniv. of the 1915 Armenian genocide of 1.5M by the Muslim Turks with a written statement calling it 'one of the great atrocities of the 20th century', but reneging on a campaign promise to label it as genocide, pissing off Armenian-Ams. - they should all get govt.-paid fertility treatments and become octomoms and octodads to make up for it? On Apr. 25 Obama's secretary, er, U.S. secy. of state Hillary Clinton makes a surprise visit to Baghdad, and holds a town hall style meeting in the U.S. embassy, promising the Iraqi people that the Obama admin. will, er, won't abandon them as the U.S. begins pulling out troops; meanwhile four suicide bombings in the last two days kill 160+. On Apr. 26 Iraqi PM (since May 20, 2006) Nouri al-Maliki (1950-) denounces a predawn U.S. raid in S Iraq that killed two Iraqis, vowing to prosecute the soldiers involved, becoming the first such call; meanwhile Pakistan launches a military operation against the Taliban in the Lower Dir region, ending their controversial peace deal; meanwhile the Sri Lankan govt. mocks a unilateral cease-fire declared by entrapped Tamil Tiger rebels, who are balls to the wall with one foot in the Indian Ocean, and on May 17 defeat them in a bloody final battle, killing 250, incl. the rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, causing the remainder to surrender, ending Asia's longest civil war (begun 1983) after 70K are killed. On Apr. 26 German voters reject the Pro-Reli program to make teaching of religion in Berlin schools compulsary. On Apr. 27 a 5.6 earthquake hits Mexico City, shaking bldgs. in flutown. On Apr. 27 a misconceived Air Force One Photo Opp in Manhattan, incl. a flyover of Ground Zero for 9/11 causes panic, pissing off New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who calls it 'ill-conceived' and a 'waste of taxpayers' money', after which Pres. Obama chews out the personnel involved, esp. White House military office dir. Louis Caldera (1956-), who resigns on May 8; after finding that it cost $328K, David Letterman asks them if they ever heard of Photoshop. On Apr. 28 Penn. Jewish Sen. (since 1981) Arlen Specter (1930-) switches from Repub. to Dem., taking the Dems. to within one vote of a filibuster-proof Senate (60); 200K other Penn. Repubs. migrated to the Dem. Party already this year; meanwhile the Obama admin. celebrates its first 100 days. On Apr. 28 TLW pub. his paper Megamerge: The Dissolution Solution on the Internet, advocating the dissolving of the U.S.-Mexico border and the megamerge of both countries into a 75-state U.S. - will it catch on or will Rodin's Thinker get another tattoo? On Apr. 29 Chrysler Corp. declares bankruptcy despite a last-minute deal with Fiat to pool technology and acceptance of a Treasury-brokered rescue package by unions and bank creditors after a group of hedge and investment funds refuse to cancel $6.9B in debt in return for a $2B cash payment; meanwhile on Apr. 27 a massive $30B restructuring plan for GM is laid out, which would make the U.S. govt. and the UAW majority stockholders; meanwhile China waits in the wings, poised to pass Japan and become the world's largest automaker. On Apr. 29 the U.S. House approves a measure providing gay victims of violence with federal protection, also providing state and local authorities with federal funds; a weaker bill died two years ago under a veto threat by Pres. Bush; the bill was spurred by the 1998 killing of Wyo. college student Matthew Shepard. On Apr. 29 conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court attack a key element of the 1965 U.S. Voting Rights Act, questioning whether Southern states should still be held to account for past racial discrimination; the law forces those states to get special approval before making changes in the way they conduct elections. On Apr. 29 the Wacky Warning Labels award goes to the Original Off-Road Commode, which attaches to a trailer hitch and features the label 'Not for use on moving vehicles'; the award highlights how low U.S. manufacturers will go to fend off lawsuits. On Apr. 30 U.S. Supreme Court justice David Hackett Souter (1939-), who was appointed by pres. George H.W. Bush in 1990 for his conservative credentials, then flopped to stop the court from going conservative, becoming known as the liberals' 5th vote announces plans to retire at the end of the court's term in June, causing speculation that Pres. Obama will appoint a woman to fill the vacancy, although he only indicates that he will pick someone with 'empathy', adding 'I will seek someone who understands that justice isn't about some abstract legal theory or footnote in a case book. It is also about how our laws affect the daily realities of people's lives'; on May 24 after flack over his empathy psychobabble, he adds that they have to understand the 'practical day-to-day' implications of rulings - empathetically understand? On Apr. 30 Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri (1966-) pleads guilty to being a sleeper agent for al-Qaida; he arrived in the U.S. on the day before 9/11 - and has had plenty of time to sleep where they put him? On Apr. 30 (9:30 a.m) Georgian citizen Farda Gadyrov opens fire in the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy school in Baku, Azerbaijan, killing 12 and wounding 12 before killing himself. In Apr. a YouTube video of two Domino's Pizza workers, Kristy Lynn Hammonds (1978-) and Michael Anthony Setzer (1977-) doing gross things with food in the kitchen while saying 'Do it again, do it again' causes an uproar and hurts Domino's business bigtime, after which it is revealed to be a hoax with the food never actually served, but that doesn't stop them from being fired and prosecutors from filing felony charges on them for food tampering. In Apr. the Nat. Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders calls for illegal aliens to boycott the 2010 U.S. Census until Congress passes comprehensive immigration reform. In Apr. an image of Our Lady of Guadelupe on a griddle in Calexico, Calif. causes over 100 faithful to flock to see it, incl. a group of masked Mexican wrestlers on Apr. 30 - or just regular wrestlers guarding against the flu?

On May 1 hundreds of marchers in San Francisco and Oakland, Calif. brave rain to call for an end to immigration raids and legalization of the umpteen-million undocumented workers (don't say illegal aliens). On May 1 Scottish-born Carol Ann Duffy (1955-) becomes poet laureate of Britain (until ?), becoming the first bi, first woman, and first of the 21st cent. On May 2 a Sunni Iraqi soldier opens fire on U.S. troops, killing two near Mosul before being killed - let me do the work, you just get well? On May 2 the the indoor practice facility of the Dallas Cowboys in Irving, Tex. collapses in high winds, causing 12 to be hospitalized, and permanently paralyzing scouting asst. Rich Behm (1975-). On May 3 news that Notre Dame U. in Repub.-leaning Ind. (which he carried in the pres. election) invited Pres. Obama to its graduation ceremony pisses off Roman Catholic bishops because of his stand on abortion, and causes protests on three straight Fridays, on the last of which (May 15) black former Repub. candidate Alan Keyes is arrested; meanwhile a Gallup poll shows that 67% of Catholics and 79% of Jews support Obama; on May 17 (Sun.) Obama addresses Notre Dame grads amid abortion protesters shouting 'Stop killing our children', calling for 'open hearts, open minds, fair-minded words' in the public debate over the issue, and that neither should caricature or demonize the other; 37 protesters are arrested, incl. Norman McCovey, the Roe in the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case, who was used by liberal attys. then came out against abortion. On May 3 grocery mogul Ricardo Martinelli (1951-) is elected pres. of Panama, taking office on July 1 (until ?). On May 4 the U.S. Supreme Court in Flores-Figueroa v. U.S. rules unanimously that undocumented workers who use made-up Social Security numbers can't be prosecuted as identity thieves to make them kowtow and leave to avoid federal prison terms unless they knew the ID numbers were from real people. On May 4 Jeff Kepner (1951-) of Augusta, Ga. undergoes the first-ever double hand transplant; on May 5 Connie Big Gulp, er, Connie Culp (1962-) (whose lowdown hubby shot off her face with a shotgun, then botches his own suicide and gets a lousy 7 years for attempted murder) bravely steps forward in Cleveland, Ohio to show the results of the first U.S. face transplant (last year), by the Cleveland Clinic, uttering the soundbyte 'I got me my nose' - transplant his face to his ass and vice-versa, what an ass? On May 4 the U.S. coalition battles the Taliban in the W Afghan province of Farah, with the Taliban nutcases using Afghan civilians as human shields, after which the pissed-off Afghani govt. comes down on the Talibanis, er, U.S. forces, claiming that they killed 147 civilians. On May 5 Brazilian officials announce that floods and mudslides in N Brazil have driven 186K from their homes and killed 19. On May 5 a French judge okays an investigation into African leaders Omar Bongo of Gabon, Denis Sassou-Nguesso of DRC, and Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guina for money-laundering of their ill-gotten gains in France. On May 5 U.S. vice-pres. Joe Biden tells the Am. Israel Public Affairs Committee that the Obama admin. is committed to a new Palestinian state, saying 'The status quo of the last decade has not served the interests of the United States, or Israel, very well.' On May 5 a 500-man tank battalion in Georgia mutinies, causing pres. Mikheil Sakashvili to accuse Russia of being behind it; the mutiny is ended in a few hours. On May 5 British home secy. Jacqueline Jill 'Jacqui' Smith (1962-) pub. Britain's first shame list of 16 of 22 people barred from entering the Y.U.K., er, U.K. for exercising freedom of speech by allegedly fostering extremism or hatred, incl. Jewish-Am. talk-radio host Michael Savage (Michael Alan Weiner) (1942-), who told it like it is and called the Queer, er, Quran a 'book of hate'. On May 6 Maine passes a bill allowing gay marriage, followed by N.H., becoming state #6; of six New England states, only R.I. is holding out. On May 6 the Taliban wars with the Pakistani military over the NW Pakistan town of Mingora (Mangora) (Minagora), causing thousands to flee; the Pakistani military takes control on May 31. On May 6 U.S. Navy vet. (a Colo. resident) Stephen P. Morgan (1979-) guns down Wesleyan U. student (also from Colo., where he met her in 2007) Johanna Justin-Jinich (b. 1987) in a cafe near the campus, after which his notebook is discovered, containing the soundbyte 'Kill Johanna', plus notes about his grudges against Jews and 'beautiful' and 'smart' Wesleyan students; he gives himself up on May 7. On May 6 Pres. Obama meets with leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and states that 'The security of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States are linked', calling for a joint strategy to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaida militants. On May 7 U.S. regulators tell the 19 largest U.S. banks that they need $75B in extra capital to stay viable. On May 7 Manuel 'Manny' Aristides Ramirez is banned for 50 games, costing him $7M, just because he took the prescription women's fertility drug human chorionic gonadotropin, which might help increase his testosterone level - real poontang does the same thing? On May 7 ex-police sgt. Drew Walter Peterson (1954-) is finally arrested for the death of his 3rd wife Kathleen Savio, who he claimed accidentally drowned in her empty bathtub in Bolingbrook, Ill., but was reinvestigated after his 4th wife Stacy Peterson disappeared mysteriously in Oct. 2007. On May 8 Pope Benedict XVI begins his first trip to the Middle East, incl. Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories, becoming the first time that a pope has made an official visit to a Muslim country, Jordan; on May 11 he visits the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, saying the victims 'lost their lives but they will never lose their names', pissing off the Jewish PC police, who wanted him to use the hot button words 'murder' and 'Nazi' in his speech, and make a stand on Pope Pius XII, whom they claim didn't do enough to save Jews from guess what by guess what on his watch.On May 10 the Mexican govt. announces that it will not participate in a Shanghai trade fair on May 19-21, calling China's treatment of its citizens over the swine flu epidemic unacceptable, incl. banning imports of pork and quaranting Mexican travelers - only a maroon thinks that eating pork can give you swine flu? On May 10 human rights groups in the U.S. announce that they are investigating reports that U.S. troops have been illegally using white phosphorus as weapons against the Taliban in Afghanistan; it is legal to use it to illuminate a target or create smoke, but innocent civilians can get burned if it is used over populated areas, which constitutes a war crime. On May 10 ex-U.S. vice-pres. Dick Cheney breaks precedent and attacks the Obama admin., saying the U.S. has become more vulnerable to a terrorist attack since it took power. On May 10 U.S. vice-pres. Joe Biden insults pres. Obama's new black-and-white (half black and half white?) Portuguese water dog Bo, saying that his dog Champ is smarter. On May 11 the cost of a first-class U.S. stamp rises to 44 cents. On May 11 U.S. defense secy. Robert Gates replaces gen. David D. McKiernan with lt. gen. Stanley A. McChrystal as top U.S. gen. in Afghanistan less than a year after he took over, indicating that the U.S. is in deeper doo-doo?; on June 21 he announces that the U.S. will sharply restrict airstrikes to situations in which they are needed to prevent coalition troops from being overrun in an effort to reduce civilian deaths. On May 11 after years of legal wrangling, ailing Ukrainian-born suspected Nazi guard 'Ivan the Terrible', retired Ohio autoworker John (Ivan) Demjanjuk (1920-) is deported to Germany to face 27.9K counts of accessory to murder. On May 11 stressed-out U.S. Sgt. John M. Russell (b. 1964-) of Sherman, Tex. fires on his comrades inside a combat stress clinic in Baghdad, killing five. On May 11 the U.S. health care industry agrees to cut $2T in costs over the next 10 years by using more info. technology etc.; in 1977 Pres. Carter got them to promise the same thing, and they never went through with it; meanwhile the White House releases hit-the-fan numbers showing that the U.S. budget deficit will reach $1.84T this year, $89B more than forecast in Feb., increasing the inaugural deficit of $1.2T by $600B; meanwhile in Apr. a Pew poll shows Obama having an overall approval rating of 64%, but just 49% approving his handling of the deficit, and a week earlier worldwide investors demanded higher interest for 30-year Treasury bonds. On May 11 Space Shuttle Atlantis blasts off on a mission to repair the aging Hubble Space Telescope, and returns on May 22; on May 23 Hubble senior project scientist David Leckrone posts on the NASA Web site, complaining that NASA is abandoning its capability of servicing scientific instruments in space. On May 11 African-Am. comedian Wanda Sykes (1964-) gives a performance at a Mon. night White House Correspondents' Dinner, pissing off conservatives by accusing Rush Limbaugh of treason, and wishing that his kidneys would fail as a gotcha to his frequent comments that he wishes that the Obama admin. would fail. On May 11 former Minn. gov. (1999-2003) Jesse Ventura (1951-) appears on CNN's Larry King Live, calling George W. Bush the worst U.S. pres. of his lifetime and offering to waterboard Dick Cheney, then asking to be appointed U.S. ambassador to Cuba; meanwhile a CIA inspector-gen. report from May 7, 2004 that is finally being released reveals that waterboarding didn't produce the desired results, and that it is difficult 'to determine conclusively whether interrogations have provided information critical to interdicting specific imminent attacks'. Priests go for Vitamin P, archibishops for Vitamin D? On May 12 Rembert George Weakland (1927-), former Roman Catholic archbishop of Milwaukee, Wisc. (1977-2002), who resigned in a sex and financial scandal announces that he is gay; meanwhile in May Puerto Rican-born Cuban Miami, Fla. Roman Catholic priest Father Alberto Cutie (1969-) (AKA Father Oprah) is photographed with a divorced woman that he's been hooking up with for two years, causing a firestorm of controversy about pussy power, er, celibacy of non-gay priests; in June he becomes an Episcopal priest and marries 35-y.-o. Ruhama Canellis (1974-). On May 12 the U.S. FDA threatens Gen. Mills Inc. over its Cheerios oats cereal, claiming that since it contains the slogan 'You can lower your cholesterol 4 percent in six weeks', that makes it a drug, putting them in charge of approving it, which they haven't, so it's now 'unauthorized' and subject to criminal action - this despicable overreaching of a federal regulatory agency makes me want to whinny and send a herd of horses stampeding onto their officials? I'm fed up with the FDA? Fight them all the way to the Supreme Stable? On May 12 up to 12 suicide bombers stage synchronized attacks on govt. buildings in Khost (E of Kabul) in Afghanistan, triggering scattered fighting that kills 20 and wounds three U.S. soldiers. On May 12 Pres. Obama threatens Britain that if it reveals the methods of torture of Ethiopian-born terrorist Binyam Ahmed Mohamed (1978-) (who was detained in Guantanamo Bay Prison then released, arriving in Britain on Feb. 23), he will reevaluate his intel-sharing relationship with them; Obama's decision to block the release of photos depicting torture of terrorism detainees causes ex-pres. Jimmy Carter to break with him, saying 'I think... most of his supporters were hoping that he would be much more open in the revelation of what we've done in the past'. On May 12 on Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly (1949-) theorizes that legalization of gay marriage could lead to interspecies marriages, with the soundbyte 'You would let everybody get married who want to get married. You want to marry a turtle, you can' - her sleek bristles reach deeper? On May 13 the European Commission fines Intel Corp. a record 1.06B Euros for abusing its dominance in the computer chip market vis a vis its rival Advanced Micro Devices. On May 13 Pres. Obama flip-flops his position, deciding to oppose the court-ordered release of photos of abuse of Muslim ragheads by U.S. forces after all. On May 13 Tiffany Toribio (1985-) of Albuquerque, N.M. smothers her 3-y.-o. son Tyruss 'Ty' Toribio in a playground in a park, resuscitates him, smothers him again, then buries him there, the body found two days later, after which she is arrested on May 21, saying that since no one cared about her when she was growing up, she didn't want him to grow up that way. On May 14 U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (1940-) claims that the CIA lied to Congress in 2002 about whether waterboarding was being used on terrorists suspects, causing CIA dir. (since Feb. 13) Leon Panetta (1938-) to deny it on May 15, after which Pelosi wakes up and closes ranks with the Obama admin., shifting the blame to the Bush admin. but sticking with her story; too bad, the CIA officials who lied to her were career officials, not working for the Bush admin., and Repub. pundit Newt Gingrich (1943-) calls for her to step down, with the soundbyte, 'If you were a young man or woman just starting out today, would you put on a uniform or become an intelligence officer to defend America, knowing that tomorrow a politician like Nancy Pelosi could decide you were a criminal?'; meanwhile White House spokesman Robert Gibbs tells the press he wishes they would focus on the future not the past, causing her to be compared on YouTube to Pussy Galore; the CIA has already been proven to have lied to Congress, so why try to cover for them now? On May 15 Pres. Obama revives the military tribunals for Guantanamo Bay detainees, while promising to make changes to give them stronger legal protections, pissing off liberal supporters, who accuse him of reneging on campaign promises. On May 15 U.S. atty. gen. Eric Holder announces that the federal govt. will no longer pursue medical marijuana dispensaries or patients unless marijuana is illegal under both state and federal laws, becoming a V for marijuana legalization and states rights advocates; on May 22 Pres. Obama announces that he will reverse a Bush admin. rule known as preemption, where federal regs override state laws on environment, health, public safety et al., becoming another V for states rights. On May 16 Pres. Obama nominates Repub. Utah gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. as U.S. ambassador to China; he is fluent in Mandarin. On May 17 the Indian Nat. Congress Party of Italian-born Sonia Gandhi (Edvige Antonia Albina Maino) (1946-) (widow of PM Rajiv Gandhi) scores a stunning political coup in India, winning 205 of 543 seats, 12 shy of a majority, its best performance in 25 years. On May 18 the U.S. Supreme Court rules 5-4 in Ashcroft v. Iqbal that high-level U.S. officials incl. FBI dir. Robert Mueller and U.S. atty. gen. John Ashcroft can't be sued by 9/11 terrorist detainee Javaid Iqbal of Pakistan for alleged torture and humiliation for being a Muslim without initial evidence (sans discovery) that they ordered the abuse personally; liberal justices David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens dissent, with Ginsburg saying they 'messed up the federal rules' for civil suits, and Souter saying the decision could 'upend' the civil litigation system; after hundreds of lower courts begin citing the decision as a pretext to get rid of civil cases they don't like at will, it becomes the most significant U.S. Supreme Court decision of the decade? On May 18 Pres. Obama meets with new Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, hinting at a timetable to resolve differences with Iran over their nuke program, with Netanyahu saying he won't negotiate with the Palestinians unless they recognize the right of the state of Israel to exist; on May 26 Obama meets with Egyptian pres. Hosni Mubarak, followed on May 28 by Palestinian pres. Mahmoud Abbas. On May 18 Michelle Obama gives a speech at the opening night of the Am. Ballet Theater, saying that the arts can 'express, enable and empower Americans of all ages'. On May 19 Pres. Obama announces a plan to curb vehicle emissions by 2012 a la Calif. by mandating a fleet avg. of 35.5 mpg vs. 25 mpg this year, saying that the vehicles will cost more but pay off at the pump. On May 19 Sen. Dem. leaders announce that they will not provide the $80M requested by Pres. Obama to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, and on May 21 the U.S. Senate resoundingly rejects Obama, causing him on May 21 to give a speech at the Nat. Archives in Washington, D.C., giving further details about his plans for Guantanamo detainees, saying that he intends to transfer some to facilities in the U.S., and proposing 'prolonged detention' for those who cannot be tried, calling it 'the toughest issue we face'; afterward, saying that Obama 'deserves an answer', ex-vice-pres. Obi Wan Kecheney delivers his own speech, defending Bush admin. policy along with the Gitmo prisoner camp, calling Obama's nat. security approach 'recklessness cloaked in righteousness', and his opposition to torture 'unwise in the extreme', with critics being guilty of 'phony moralizing' and 'feigned outrage', adding that Obama has 'found that it's easy to receive applause in Europe for closing Guantanamo', and that 'The administration seems to pride itself on searching for some kind of middle ground in policies addressing terrorism. Triangulation is a political strategy, not a national security strategy', concluding with 'When they see the American government caught up in arguments about interrogations, the terrorists see just what they were hoping for, our unity gone, our resolve shaken, our leaders distracted. In short, they see weakness and opportunity'; meanwhile an unreleased Pentagon Report is leaked, which found that about one in seven of 534 prisoners already transferred abroad from Gitmo are engaged in terrorism again; the report is a phony, with loose definitions used to make its point? On May 19 British House of Commons speaker (since 2000) Michael John Martin (1945-) becomes the first to be ousted from his job in over 300 years, promising to step down on June 21 after Am. freelance writer Heather Brooke (not to be confused with the porno queen at IDeepthroat.com) uses the new British FOI Act to dig up proof of his and other British politicians' greed, incl. using tax money to renovate and sell properties for profit, and pay for an electrical massage chair and the clearing of a country house moat. On May 19 Colombian lawmakers approve a measure to let voters decide whether popular pres. (since 2002) Alvaro Uribe may seek a 3rd term. On May 19 the U.S. Senate passes sweeping pro-consumer credit card legislation, ending some of the abuses of the industry; too bad, it allows the credit card cos. to continue to charge any interest rate they want, kowtowing to them and refusing to plug up they hole they made in 1979; it also contains a sneaky provision allowing visitors to nat. parks to carry loaded and concealed weapons, causing concerns about it passing the House or Obama signing it, but the House passes it on May 20, and Obama signs it on May 22, saying the new law won't take effect for 9 mo. (next Feb.). On May 19 while Gov. Terminator is visiting the White House, a special election in Calif. rejects measures to keep the reeling state solvent amid calls for a constitutional convention. On May 20 an Indonesian air force plane carrying 100+ crashes into a residential area in Jakarta, killing 79. On May 20 a car bomb explodes in an ice cream parlor in a Shiite neighborhood of N Baghdad, killing 34 and wounding 72. On May 20 Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket slaps Pres. Obama in the face by announcing the test-firing of a solid-fuel medium range missile capable of hitting Israel and U.S. bases in the Persian Gulf. On May 20 Burmese democracy advocate and hero Aung San Suu Kyi (1945-), who has been under house arrest for 13 of the last 19 years is put on trial in Rangoon by the cruddy military dictatorship for allowing John W. Yettaw (1956-) of the U.S. to stay overnight at her house, this big crime in Aftershaveland carrying five years for Suu Kyi and seven for Yettaw. On May 20 a 2.6K-page Report on Irish Reformatories released in Dublin reports physical, emotional and sexual abuse of inmates by priests and nuns from the 1930s to the 1990s - when's the movie coming out starring Brangelina? On May 20 Islamic would-be terrorists James Cromitie (55), David Williams (28), Onta Williams (32), and Laguerre Payen (the only non-American) are arrested after being suckered by federal agents into planting fake explosives near two New York City synagogues. On May 20 Repub. Pentecostal minister James A. Young (1955-) becomes the first black mayor of Philadelphia, Miss. (until ?), known for the slaying of three civil rights workers in 1964. On May 21 a new French Anti-Internet Piracy Law is passed, to take effect in the summer, allowing the govt. to snoop on Internet users and cut off access of those who download music and movies without paying; luckily on June 10 the constitutional court rules that only a judge can order Web access cut off, calling access as a human right. On May 21 after a roundup of 99 of 1K members, and the confiscation of dozens of firearms, U.S. prosecutors charge 145 members of the 50-y.-o. Hispanic Varrio Hawaiian Gardens Gang of Hawaiian Gardens (E of Long Beach, Calif.), known for persecuting blacks and killing a sheriff's deputy in 2005; they call themselves the 'Hate Gang' and take orders from the Mexican Mafia. On May 22 Leilani Neumann (1967-) is convicted in Wisc. of 2nd degree reckless homicide for relying on prayer to cure her 11-y.-o. daughter Madeleine of diabetes instead of medicine, after which she died on Mar. 23, 2008 - convict God too? On May 23 Pres. Obama nominates former Marine aviator and Space Shuttle astronaut maj. gen. Charles Frank 'Charlie' Bolden Jr. (1946-) as the new head of NASA, becoming the first African-Am. On May 25 (morning) (U.S. Memorial Day - thanks for thinking of us?) North Korea conducts its 2nd underground nuclear test in three years, drawing global condemnation, incl. from Russia and China, and the U.N. Security Council; their Apr. 5 launch of a long range missile compounds the condemnation, which doesn't stop them on May 27 from announcing that it no longer honors the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War, and that it will respond with 'a powerful military strike' if any nation tries to stop it from exporting missiles and WMDs, calling such naval actions a 'declaration of war'; on May 26 South Korea announced that it would join nations doing just that - they have decided that Obama is another Jimmy Carter already? On May 26 France opens its first military base in the Persian Gulf in Zayed Port, Abu Dhabi, its first permanent oversease military installation outside its former colonies in Africa in 50 years; in Mar. France returned to NATO after 43 years, signalling that it is trying to become a more active strategic partner of the U.S. On May 25 U.S. state secy. Hillary Clinton announces that partners of gay U.S. diplomats will be given the same benefits as spouses of hetero diplomats - I need to blow that dude, let me through now? On May 26 Pres. Obama nominates U.S. Appeals judge (since 1998) Sonia Sotomayor (1954-) (whose parents were immigrants from Puerto Rico, and who is known for ending the 1994 ML baseball strike) for the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the first Hispanic nominated; Repubs. immediately dredge up her past statements showing she might be a budding judicial activist and/or Latin racist and vow to fight; in 2001 she uttered the soundbyte 'Justice O'Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases... I am also not so sure that I agree with the statement... I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life', causing Newt Gingrich to call her a 'reverse racist' and call for her to withdraw, and Christian televangelist Pat Robertson to call her nomination an 'outrage', calling her 'one of the most left-wing judges that there is in the United States'; on May 29 the Obama admin. backs down a little, calling her choice of words 'poor'; on Aug. 6 the U.S. Senate confirms her by a 68-31 vote, with 9 of 40 Repubs. voting for her, incl. Lamar Alexander of Tenn.; John McCain of Ariz. voted against her, and Jeff Sessions of Ala. says that at least Obama won't nominate any more judges who claim to be guided by empathy; new Dem. Sen. Al Franken presided over the Senate during the vote; on ? she is sworn in, becoming the first Hispanic U.S. Supreme Court justice (until ?). On May 27 a Taliban suicide bomb attack at a police bldg. in Lahore, Pakistan kills 30 and wounds 250; a reprisal for the govt. offensive?; meanwhile the Obama admin. asks Congress for $736M to build a new U.S. embassy and housing complex in Islamabad; the one in Iraq cost $740M; on June 16 Pakistani warlord Baitullah Mehsud claims responsibility, and threatens to attack the White House and Washington, D.C. On May 28 after Israel rejects U.S. overtures to stop settlement construction on the West Bank, Pres. Obama personally steps in and tries to pressure it while meeting with Palestinian pres. Mahmud Abbas. On May 30 three white supremacist Minutemen vigilantes invade a home occupied by Mexican illegal immigrants in Arivaca in S Ariz. and kill 9-y.-o. Brisenia Flores and her daddy Raul Junior Flores, and seriously injure her mommy Gina Gonzalez; they were looking for drugs and cash to fund their anti-immigrant org.; police allege that the ringleader is Minuteman Am. Defense dir. Shawna Forde (1968-), who is arrested along with two others; . On May 31 late-term abortion provider George Tiller is murdered at a church in Wichita, Kan. by pro-lifer Scott Roeder, who draws condemnation from pro-life groups. On May 31 (Sun.) the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards are stunk up by a stunt where 'Borat' comedian (now 'Bruno') Sacha Baron Cohen (1971-) flies over the audience dressed as an angel, then crash-lands in the audience, ending upside-down with his bare buttocks exposed in rapper Eminem's face, causing the latter to walk out while cussing. In May in the midst of his feuding with Nancy Pelosi, CIA chief Leon Panetta travels to Israel to 'read the riot act' to them, warning them against attacking Iran to stop them from developing nukes; meanwhile the Obama admin. quietly accepts their inevitability, stirring fears of a coming Jewish holocaust. In May the U.S. loses 345K jobs, bringing the total lost since the economic stimulus was passed 3 mo. ago to 1.5M, causing Sarah Palin to tell Sean Hannity of Fox News, 'We told ya so'. China, the world's #2 exporter records a 26.4% drop in exports since last May, becoming the worst since 1995; imports fall 25.2%. On June 1 Gen. Motors, AKA Generous Motors becomes Govt. Motors as GM (founded 1908) declares bankruptcy; the U.S. govt. now owns 60% of the co. in return for $50B, with Canada getting 12%, the UAW 17.5%, and bondholders 10%; on June 1 Pres. Obama gives a speech, calling the U.S. a 'reluctant equity owner'; a Ramussen Poll shows support for the plan at 21%, with 67% opposed; meanwhile House Repub. leader (R-Ohio) John Boehner calls the Obama takeover of GM 'lunacy', and calls on Congress to create a watchdog oversight body after grumbling that Obama went around the Congress unlike with the 1970s Chrysler bailout; after an outcry, GM agrees to cover liability claims despite being in Chapter 11; on July 10 GM surprises by emerging from bankruptcy. In MayU.S. unemployment soars to 14.5M (16.5% counting part-time workers), losing 6.1M jobs since last June, and 467K jobs since Apr., becoming the biggest year-to-year June increase in four decades, up 70%.

On June 1 Gen. Motors, AKA Generous Motors becomes Govt. Motors as GM (founded 1908) declares bankruptcy; the U.S. govt. now owns 60% of the co. in return for $50B, with Canada getting 12%, the UAW 17.5%, and bondholders 10%; on June 1 Pres. Obama gives a speech, calling the U.S. a 'reluctant equity owner'; a Ramussen Poll shows support for the plan at 21%, with 67% opposed; meanwhile House Repub. leader (R-Ohio) (since Feb. 2, 2006) John Andrew Boehner (1949-) (pr. BAY-ner) calls the Obama takeover of GM 'lunacy', and calls on Congress to create a watchdog oversight body after grumbling that Obama bypassed the Congress unlike with the 1970s Chrysler bailout; after an outcry, GM agrees to cover liability claims despite being in Chapter 11; on July 10 GM surprises by emerging from bankruptcy. On June 1 the land and sea portion of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) goes into effect; U.S. citizens are required to have a U.S. Passport Card to reenter their own country, raising the possibility that illegal aliens could kidnap them in the U.S., dump them over the border, and watch them try to get back in without success until they pay the coyotes to bring them in as illegal aliens; the biggest initial impact is at the U.S.-Canadian border, known for allowing crossers being able to merely state their nationality. On June 1 (4:15 a.m.) Air France 447 (Airbus 330) disappears over the Atlantic en route from Rio to Paris, carrying 228 passengers and crew from 32 countries; it takes weeks to recover the wreckage, which suggest that the plane broke up in the air; on June 30 an Airbus A310-300 en route from Yemen to Comoros crashes into the Indian Ocean, killing 152 of 153 aboard. On June 1 Tonight Show host (since May 25, 1992) Jay Leno retires, and Conan Christian O'Brien (1963-) takes over. On June 2 anti-Semitic white supremacist N.J. Internet blogger Harold Charles 'Hal' Turner (1962-) posts on his blog that three federal judges who are against the Nat. Rifle Assoc. 'deserve to be killed', causing the FBI to arrest him on June 3, and he is denied bail to boot; too bad, on Aug. 11 prosecutors admit that Turner had been an FBI informant against radical right-wing orgs. - the FBI should be killed too? On June 2-7 375M people in the EU vote to fill 736 seats in the new European Parliament (EP), becoming the world's 2nd largest election on Earth after India; conservatives dominate the results; the British Conservative Party breaks from the European Peoples Party after two decades to form a new right-wing anti-federalist bloc, the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (EGR), becoming the 4th largest bloc in the EP. On June 3 the Obama admin. reverses a Bush admin. rule that illegal immigrants facing deportation don't have an automatic right to an effective lawyer, and on June 10 orders the FBI and CIA to inform terrorists overseas that they have the 'right to remain silent' (Miranda warning) before torturing, er, probing them for info. to save perhaps thousands or millions of lives, which U.S. Rep. (R-Ark.) (since 2001) John Boozman (1950-) calls 'the craziest idea I've ever heard in my life'. On June 3 Pres. Obama arrives in Riyadh and meets with Saudi king Abdullah; on June 4 he gives a Speech to the Arab World in Cairo, hoping to make a fresh start with Muslims by changing perceptions of the U.S. as not out to get Islam itself, making a clean break with George W. 'Crusader' Bush, never mentioning the word terrorism, admitting that the U.S. acted 'contrary to our traditions and our ideals', and uttering the soundbyte 'I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear. But that same principle must apply to Muslim perceptions of America. Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire'; his speech, which backs women's rights electrifies many in the Middle East, but others grumble that it's just a speech and they're still waiting for actions; meanwhile many Jews get pissed off at his remarks comparing the Israeli persecution of Palestinians with the WWII Holocaust - no shoes thrown?On June 5 former U.S. state dept. official Walter Kendall Myers (1936-) and his wife Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers (1937-) are charged with spying for Cuba for the last 30 years, passing info. over shortwave radio and by switching shopping carts with Cuban agents in grocery stores; Walter's great-grandfather is Alexander Graham Bell. On June 5 Pres. Obama tours the WWII Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany, uttering the soundbyte 'Today there are those who insist the Holocaust never happened. This place is the ultimate rebuke to such thought, a reminder of our duty to confront those who would tell lies about our history'; on June 6 Obama visits Omaha Beach in Normandy to commemorate the 65th anniv. of D-Day, uttering the soundbyte 'Friends and veterans, what we cannot forget, what we must not forget, is that D-Day was a time and a place where the bravery and selflessness of a few was able to change the course of an entire century.' On June 5 struggling 23-y.-o. white S.D.rancher Neal Wanless (1986-) claims the $232M Powerball prize (9th largest jackpot in game history), vowing to use his $88.5M after-tax fortune (out of the 1-time cash prize of $118M) to help others; he bought the ticket in a town called Winner, S.D. On June 6 Pres. Obama launches his grassroots campaign for health care reform via his massive Internet friends network; on June 15 he addresses the root of the, er, Am. Medical Assoc. (AMA), kissing, er, allying their fears by promising to curb malpractice lawsuits and cancel a proposed 21% cut in Medicare payments - no call for more medical schools to increase the supply of medical personnel and drive down their prices? On June 7 parliamentary elections in Lebanon result in a V for the pro-Western coalition over the militant Shiite Hezbollah, giving Hezbollah 58 seats and the coalition 70 seats out of 128. On June 8 a North Korean court sentences U.S. journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee to 12 years in a labor camp for illegal border crossing from China, increasing tensions with the U.S. On June 8 Alaska Repub. gov. Sarah Palin gives an interview to Fox News' Sean Hannity, saying that the Obama admin. is steering the U.S. toward Socialism, and that 'Our country could evolve into something that we do not even recognize, certainly that is so far from what the founders of our country had in mind for us.'On June 9 10 U.S. banks incl. Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase are deemed strong enough by federal regulators to return more than $68B in taxpayer aid, with interest; Goldman Sachs execs receive record bonuses thi syear. On June 9 a suicide bomb in the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar, India kills five and wounds 70; considered the safest place for foreigners, the U.S. was planning to purchase it for a consulate. On June 9 Pres. Obama's former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright gives an interview to the Va. Daily Press, saying that he hasn't spoken to Obama since he became pres., with the soundbyte 'Them Jews ain't going to let him talk to me. I told my baby daughter that he'll talk to me in five years when he's a lame duck, or in eight years when he's out of office'; on June 11 he corrects himself, saying 'I'm not talking about all Jews... I'm talking about Zionists'. On June 10 (9 a.m.) yet another car bomb in Bathaa in S Iraq kills 30 and wounds 65 . On June 10 anti-Semitic white supremacist James W. von Brunn (1920-) enters the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and shoots and kills a guard before being shot and captured. On June 10 the U.S. Reuniting Families Act is introduced to the U.S. House of Reps., which would allow gays to sponsor 'permanent partners' for residency. On June 10 U.S. rep. (D-Mich.) John Conyers introduces the U.S. Health Care Act, proposing to spend $2.5T to fund an all-govt. health care system. On June 10 the U.S. House of Reps. approves a resolution directing the Capitol architect to engrave the words 'In God We Trust' along with the Pledge of Allegiance inside the new Capital Visitor Center (CVC). On June 11 the the U.S. Senate gives the FDA the first-ever official power to regulate cigarettes and other forms of tobacco; 17 Sens. vote against it, incl. top recipients of campaign contributions from the tobacco industry. Iran, where everybody's got dark hair finally starts to get tired of its old non-democratic dinnajacket? On June 12 (6/6+6) elections in Iran result in both pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and right-wing reformist challenger Mickey Mouse, er, Mir Hussein (Hossein) Moussavi (Mousavi) Khameneh (1941-) (PM in 1981-9) claiming a V until the govt. ministry gets to work, declaring a 63% landslide for Imadinnajacket, causing 1.3M Moussavi supporters (who like to wear green) to cry fraud and stage violent protests, taking on the govt. in the streets, with protesters shouting 'We want freedom', and 'Where is my vote?', becoming the biggest demonstrations since the 1979 rev., causing the 2009 Iranian Green Mini-Rev. (until ?), pumped up by people using the Internet, incl. YouTube and Twitter to bypass govt. control of the media; too bad, only the urban elite have the hi-tech devices, and the rest of the country doesn't 'get' it, seeing only a Western plot, dooming the budding rev.?; on June 16 the govt. offers a stalling limited recount, which fails to appease the protesters, who stage a massive rally in Tehran on June 17, with the protester death toll reaching 32, and 392-1,135 arrested; on June 17 grand asahollah Hossein Ali Montazeri (1922-) (#2 cleric behind supreme leader Ali Khamenei) says that 'no one in their right mind can believe' the reported election results, and singles out 'evil' Britain as the #1 enemy of the Iranian Islamic Repub., since it controls the BBC, while the U.S. doesn't control CNN, both of which portray the protesters as fighting for democracy; meanwhile on June 16 unexplainably passive Pres. Obama says 'I have deep concerns about the election. I think that the world has deep concerns about the election', then adds 'Peaceful dissent should never be subject to violence', causing him to be criticized for being a whimp that won't speak out for democracy for fear of offending some slimy govt.; Moussavi is a hardline rightist who helped start Iran's nuclear program, found Hezbollah and direct the attack on the Marine barracks in Beirut, but somehow attracts the 20-something pro-Western Twitter crowd, causing observers to tell Westerners to not expect any real change even if he wins; Moussavi's wife Zahra Rahnavard (1945-) has a Ph.D. in political science, and has urged reforms incl. elimination of morality police and discrimination against women; too bad, on June 19 Iran's supreme assahola Ali Khamenei (1939-) (the Evil Emperor of the Shia Sith?) steps in, siding with Imadinnajacket and calling his election 'an absolute and definitive victory', blaming the infidel West for the turmoil, and warning protesters to stop or else, while the govt. tries to coverup a bloody crackdown, causing the U.S. Congress on June 19 to condemn the crackdown; on June 20 (Sat.) a protest in downtown Tehran is put down by police with tear gas, water cannons and batons, along with warning shots, causing to Pres. Obama to call on the govt. 'to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people', while Moussavi says that his supporters are 'facing unrighteous liars'; on June 21 (Iranian Bloody Sun.) the pigs step it up with shots into the crowd, and protester Neda Agha-Soltan (b. 1983) is shot in the heart in the street by the pigs, and dies in her friends' arms, becoming a martyr for democracy after her death video is put on the Web; on July 9 despite the govt. intimidation, the protests resume; Rafsanjani's followers turn on the Russians for portraying the affair to Imadinnajacket as another U.S.-backed Color Rev. like in Ukraine? On June 12 the U.N. Security Council imposes tough new sanctions on pesky North Korea, incl. authorizing ship searches on the high seas to look for nukes; meanwhile on June 16 rabbit-scared South Korean pres. Lee Myung-Bak visits the White House, and otains assurances that the U.S. will continue protecting his country from attack by North Korea, with Pres. Obama uttering the soundbyte that he doesn't think that North Korea 'will or should be a nuclear power' - watch myung bak, okay? On June 12 (midnight) the U.S. switches to digital TV; the date had originally been set to Feb. 17 until Obama gets it extended; too bad, individual stations are left free to decide which date to do the transition. On June 14 Israeli PM (since Mar. 31) Benjamin Netanyahu (1949-) replies to Pres. Obama's call to Israel to help create a Palestinian state, saying that he would only support one that was demilitarized - like a Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland? On June 16 a summit in Yekaterinburg, Russia by leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China, to which the U.S. was refused admittance announces the creation of BRIC, a new political bloc to challenge the global dominance of the U.S., incl. 40% of world pop. and 15% of world GDP; economist Michael Hudson calls it 'the most important meeting of the 21st century so far', because they are planning on ending the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency. On June 16 ex-U.S. pres. Jimmy Carter visits Gaza, and says that he had to 'hold back tears' when he saw the destruction by the Jan. war. On June 16 U.S. Sen. (R-Nev.) (2001-) John Eric Ensign (1958-) admits to an extramarital affair with Cynthia Hampton, member of his campaign staff, and on June 17 he steps down as chmn. of the Repub. Policy Committee; on June 19 the Las Vegas Sun reports that Cynthia's hubby Doug Hampton had been complaining about it, and on July 9 Ensign admits that his parents had given Cynthia and her family $96K in Apr. 2008, calling them 'gifts'. On June 17 Pres. Obama proposes sweeping changes, incl. the creation of a powerful independent Consumer Financial Product Safety Commission to regulate mortgages, credit cards and other financial products, allegedly in the interests of the consumer not the banks. On June 17 100 Romanian Romas (Gypsies) are driven from their homes in Northern Ireland by racists after they stage a demonstration against racism; most of them announce they're leaving Northern Ireland, only 14 deciding to remain. On June 27 al-Qaida militants of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) detonate two IEDs under an Algerian police convoy escorting Chinese workers to a highway construction site near Bordj Bou Arreridj, Algeria (E of Algiers), then ambush the disabled convoy, killing 18 policemen and one Chinese worker, and sounding six policemen and two workers, becoming the deadliest terrorist attack in Algeria since Aug. 19, 2008; the Islamic terrorists have been plaguing Algeria since 1998 as the civil war was ending. On June 18 the U.S. Senate approves a resolution apologizing for slavery, which House members of the Congressional Black Caucus promise to block because of its lack of restitution payments; it also passes a $105.9B emergency war-spending bill after the White House assured them that it will bar the release of photos of detained terrorism suspects by executive order if necessary - Obama is morphing into a Bush? On June 18 the U.S. Supreme Court by 5-4 in Jack Gross v. FBL Financial Services Inc. reverses a longstanding rule that employees suing employers for firing them because of age discrimination only have to show that age was one of the motivating factors, throwing the employer into the need for proving that it had a legitimate reason to fire them other than age, saying that now the employees must bear the full burden of proving that age was the deciding factor. On June 18 it is revealed that two Ohio police chiefs are being investigation for burglarizing the home of a surrogate mother carrying twins for Hollywood stars Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick. On June 19 a railroad train carrying ethanol derails in Rockford, Ill., exploding and killing a 41-y.-o. woman at a crossing, and injuring six. On June 19 Pres. Obama gives the keynote speech at the 2009 Nat. Hispanic Prayer Breakfast, promising to work for amnesty for 10M+ illegal Mexican immigrants this year, although 40+ House Dems. are against it, with the soundbyt e that the U.S. is a 'nation of Christians and Muslims and Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers'. On June 21 Pres. Obama's approval index goes negative for the first time ever, with 32% of votes strongly approving of his performance and 34% strongly disapproving; meanwhile Obama says that the U.S. is 'fully prepared for any contingencies' with madass North Korea, which is threatening a long-range missile test on July 4 in the direction of Hawaii. On June 21 Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu appears on NBC-TV's Meet the Press, and after being asked 'If the international community proves unable to stop Iran [for developing nukes], is it your view that Israel will have to?', responds that there's an 'American committment to make sure that that doesn't happen, and I think I'd leave it at that'; meanwhile a poll of Jewish Israelis by the Jerusalem Post reveals that only 6% see the Obama admin. as pro-Israel. On June 22 the New Yorker carries an article carrying a statement by CIA dir. (since Feb. 13) Leon Edward Panetta (1938-) that ex-veep Dick Cheney's criticism of Obama's terrorism policy suggests that 'he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point'; after it leaks in advance, current veep Joe Biden tells NBC-TV's 'Meet the Press' on June 14, 'I think Dick Cheney's judgment about how to secure America is faulty. I think our judgment is correct.' On June 22 two Red Line Metro subway trains slam into each other outside Washington, D.C. during afternoon rush hour, killing six and injuring 75. On June 22 Yunus-bek Yevkurov (1963-), pres. (since Oct. 30) of the Islamic Russian repub. of Ingushetia between Georgia and Chechnya is hit in Nazran by a suicide bomber and seriously wounded; his aide is killed. On June 22 30+ are killed across Iraq, making the weekend total top 100 a week before the June 30 deadline for U.S. troop pullout from urban areas. On June 22 the U.S. Supreme Court rules 9-0 in Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 v. Holder that the district qualifies for the bailout provision of Section 5 of the 2006/1965 Voting Rights Act, and rules 8-1 that it is unnecessary to decide whether it is unconstitutional, Clarence Thomas being the dissenter; the language of the ruling causes observers to conclude that most justices feel the section is unconstitutional, signalling a sea change in the court. On June 23 Pres. Obama gives a press conference, toughening up his stance on Iran and trying to explain away his earlier hesitation, saying that he's 'appalled and outraged', and 'strongly condemn these unjust actions', and uttering the soundbyte 'Those who stand up for justice are always on the right side of history', but can't do much since the U.S. has no formal relations with Iran; meanwhile brave Iranian babes begin the Lipstick Rev., defying the maniacal mullahs by parading around in public sans veils wearing Western makeup incl. lipstick; on June 25 after the assaholah's men brutally crack down on protesters, Imadinnajacket warns Obama to 'avoid interfering' in Iranian affairs; meanwhile on June 22 French pres. Nicolas Sarkozy makes a speech against the nasty Muslim practice of forcing women to bear head-to-toe burkas, saying that they are not welcome in France, and instead France should force them to adopt Western garb, particularly the miniskirt; in 2004 France banned the Islamic headscarf and other conspicuous religious symbols in public schools; on June 2 al-Qaida in North Africa threatens France with a bloodbath over it; threatens France groans under the weight of 5M Muslims. On June 23 U.S. defense secy. Robert Gates establishes the U.S. Cyber-Defense Command, to be led by NSA dir. Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander (1952-), who is to be promoted to 4-star gen.; on Aug. 3 Melissa Hathaway, the White House acting cybersecurity czar resigns - can I get a free decoder ring? On June 23 Pakistani Taliban leader Qari Zainuddin is assassinated by his own men under the orders of rival leader Baitullah Mehsud (1974-) as a U.S.-backed offensive is about to begin, ending hopes by Pakistan and the U.S. of using their rivalry against them; meanwhile on June 23 a U.S. Predator drone fires missiles into a Taliban training center in S Waziristan, than fires again into a funeral procession for the seven victims, killing 80 and maiming dozens, mostly civilians, becoming their deadliest attack so far. On June 24 S.C. Repub. gov. (since 2002) Marshall Clement 'Mark' Sanford Jr. (1960-), who mysteriously disappeared over Father's Day weekend, making nat. news, admits he has been having an extramarital affair with a 43-y.-o. divorced multilingual Maria Chapur (1966-) in Argentina while on a govt.-funded trip, dashing his hopes of running for U.S. pres. in 2012, and becoming another hit to be absorbed by the reeling Repub. Party. On June 25 the U.S. Supreme Court by 8-1 rules in Safford Unified School District #1 v. Savana Redding that school Ariz. officials violated her rights by strip-searching 13-y.-o. Savana Redding on the strength of a suspicion that she was hiding prescription-strength Advil; they then rule that the officials are immune from damages because they hadn't made it an official rights violation yet. On June 25 former U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North (1943-) gives an interview with Kathleen Walter of newsmax.com, slamming Pres. Obama for his foreign policy, saying that he needs to recognize 'that they [the U.S.] have all but won in Iraq', claiming that waterboarding isn't torture because he was waterboarded during Marine training, calling apologizing for the U.S. response to 9/11 'unconscionable', and adding that the U.S. is forgetting the lessons of 9/11 by lowering surveillance of the Internet. On June 25 Hamas chief (since 2004) Khaled Mashaal (Mashal) (1956-) delivers a speech in Damascus, Syria, saying that he likes the 'new language' from Pres. Obama; he carefully refrains from mentioning his sponsor state of Iran. On June 25 'King of Pop' Michael Jackson (b. 1958) dies of a prescription drug OD in his rented mansion in Holmby Hills in Los Angeles, becoming another JFK moment for legions of fans worldwide; he had been preparing for a 50-concert tour to restore his wasted fortune; his doctor Conrad Murray (1943-) finds him in bed not breathing and with a faint pulse, and administers CPR in vain, after which he is scrutinized for prescribing Demerol and/or OxyContin to him, which he denies; on July 7 his funeral at Staples Center in Los Angeles, attended by 18K turns into a Michael Jackson show, with Pastor Lucious Smith followed by Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Lionel Richie, Usher, John Mayer et al., plus eulogies by Berry Gordy (who calls him 'the greatest entertainer that ever lived'), Smokey Robinson, Queen Latifah, Rev. Al Sharpton, and Brooke Shields; his $25K bronze Promethean casket is plated with 14-karat gold and lined with blue velvet, and he wears a single white glove on his right hand; Russian security sources allegedly tell pres. Dmitri Medvedev that Jackson was assassinated by the CIA with an electromagnetic pulse; reports later surface that Jackson wanted to clone himself; meanwhile on June 25 Hollywood glam babe Farrah Fawcett (1947-) dies after a long struggle with cancer, making three top U.S. celebs to go down in the same week; on June 28 the 9th BET Awards honors Jackson, and his sister Janet Jackson gives a speech; on June 30 Jackson's will names his mommy Katherine Jackson as the guardian of his mystery children (of whom it is rumored that he is not the biological father, and his ex-wife Debbie Rowe might not be the genetic mother of the eldest two), and cuts off his father Joe (who he alleges beat him as a child), along with Debbie Rowe. On June 26 Pres. Obama signs the U.S. Cash for Clunkers Act (Car Allowance Rebate System), giving purchasers of a new car up to $4.5K in exchange for having their gas-guzzling clunker disposed of; it starts on July 27, and is set to end on Nov. 1 or as soon as the $1B allocated runs out, which turns out to be July 31, causing $2B more to be authorized, causing Ford to reports its first sales increase in 2 years; the top trade-in is the Ford Explorer SUV; the top-selling new car is the Ford Focus, followed by the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic; the German program it's modelled on has less restrictions and more money ($5B euros); as usual, the Obama plan props up rich automakers while destroying the business of used car and parts dealers? On June 26 the U.S. House by 219-212 (incl. 8 Repubs.) passes the landmark American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), calling for greenhouse gas emissions to be cut 17% by 2020 and 83% by 2050 (by raising the price of energy), and for 20% of all electricity in the U.S. to be generated by renewable sources and/or more efficient methods by 2020 (via tax incentives), supposedly creating millions of new 'green' jobs while costing the avg. U.S. household only $175 a year by 2020; Pres. Obama speaks out against a provision imposing trade penalties that don't accept global warming pollution limits, and adds the soundbyte that the legislation could make renewable energy 'a driver of economic growth'; meanwhile House leaders complain that they won't have time to read the 1.2K-page monster before having to vote on it; critics call it a Soviet-style 50-year plan that foists Cap and Trade on U.S. industry. On June 27 the Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster Defense Assoc., two major Protestant paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland announce voluntary disarmament after killing 1K in their war with the Catholic IRA, which disarmed in 2001-5 after killing 1.8K over 27 years; the way is paved for the 1998 Good Friday Peace Accord to be implemented. On June 28 (6 a.m.) after pushing for a constitutional amendment to allow him to run for a 2nd 4-year term, Honduran pres. (since 2006) Jose Manuel 'Mel' Zelaya (1952-) is ousted by the military, who arrest him in his pajamas and fly him to Costa Rica (without asking Costa Rican pres. Oscar Aras for permission?), causing him to utter the soundbyte 'They are creating a monster they will not be able to contain'; the army insists that it is not a coup but that they had an order by a supreme court judge to remove him for abuse of authority; Roberto Micheletti (1943-) is named interim pres. by the congress; meanwhile the Obama admin. calls for his return to office, placing himself in the same camp as a number of nearby leftist govts. incl. allies Venezuela and Nicaragua, causing conservative Am. pundit Rush Limbaugh to suggest that he is trying to get the 22nd Amendment repealed so that he can serve a 3rd term, pointing to his backing of Zelaya, who wanted to amend his constitution to serve another term, along with his refusal to stand up to the bogus Iranian election, plus the facts that his daddy was a Marxist, and his followers are 'cult-like'; on July 26 Zelaya sets up a camp on the Honduran-Nicaraguan border, ignoring the call of foreign leaders to not force a confrontation; his wife Xiomara Castro de Zelaya (1959-) is blocked by Honduran soldiers from joining him. On June 28 Argentine pres. Cristina Fernandez loses her majority in the lower house to the party run by billionaire businessman Francisco de Narvaez, while her hubby, former pres. Nestor Kirchner loses his congressional race. On June 28 Iranian pigs beat demonstrators in Tehran, while arresting nine Iranians working at the British embassy; on June 29 (Mon.) democracy in action not in Iran sees a recount begin, immediately claiming that Imadinnajacket got even more votes than before; meanwhile German chancellor Angela Merkel visits Pres. Obama at the White House, and says that the Iranian election results still need to be substantiated; meanwhile Scottish MP George Galloway stinks himself up by appearing on Iranian TV and blaming the BBC for fomenting unrest in Tehran. On June 28 Taliban fighters ambush Pakistani soldiers in N Waziristan while passing through the village of Inzar Kas, killing 16; the Pakistanis call it an unprovoked attack. On June 29 elections in Mexico return the Institutional Rev. Party (PRI) to power, with leader Beatriz Paredes saying 'The PRI has learned from its errors and corrected itself'; meanwhile the Mexican economy is expected to contract by 5.5% this year. On June 30 Iraq celebrates Sovereignty Day as U.S. troops pull out of major cities, but remain available to back Iraqi troops up, with PM Nouri al Maliki uttering the soundbyte 'Those who think that Iraqis are unable to defend their country are committing a fatal mistake'; Pres. Obama hails the authority transfer in the East Room of the White House, predicing more violence, with the soundbyte 'There are those who will test Iraqi security. I'm confident that those forces will fail. The future belongs to those who build, not those who destroy'; meanwhile a bomb in the Kurdish sector of Kirkuk kills 25 and wounds 40; on July 2 the first roadside bomb in post-U.S. Baghdad explodes near an Iraqi army patrol, killing one Iraqi soldier and wounding two soldiers and eight civilians; on July 7 bomb attacks in Baghdad and N Iraq kill 41; meanwhile Kurdistan pushes for a new constitution in defiance of Baghdad, claiming land and oil. On June 30 Al Franken (known for his SNL character 'Stuart Smalley') is finally declared the winner of the Minn. Senate race, giving Senate Dems. a filibuster-proof majority of 60; Franken becomes the first comedian Senator; meanwhile a Rasmussen daily tracking poll shows Pres. Obama receiving his first negative approval index. On June 30 a freight train carrying LPG derails and explodes in Viareggio, Italy, killing 16 and injuring 50. On June 30 after the U.S. begins a major offensive in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan, U.S. Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl (1986-) is kidnapped in E Afghanistan by the Taliban, who release a video of him on July 18, saying a 'drunken American soldier had come out of his garrison'. On June 30 the Greek-flagged boat Spirit of Humanity carrying 21 activists of the Free Gaza Movement with humanitarian supplies for Gaza is seized by the Israelis; activists incl. black former U.S. rep. (D-Ga.) (1993-2003, 2005-7) Cynthia McKinney (1955-) (2008 Green Party candidate for U.S. pres., known for striking a Capitol police officer in the Longworth House Office Bldg. on Mar. 29, 2006, then apologizing on the House floor on Apr. 6, then introducing articles of impeachment against Pres. George W. Bush later in 2006), who arrives back in the U.S. on July 7 after a week in jail; the U.S. press stifles coverage? In June Goldman Sachs repays $10B in TARP loans while raising another $8.9B in equity, debt and asset sales, paying its way out of the govt. bailout. In June the U.S. mortgage market begins rebounding, with a 11% increase in home sales. In JuneU.S. unemployment soars to 14.5M (16.5% counting part-time workers), losing 6.1M jobs since last June, and 467K jobs since Apr., becoming the biggest year-to-year June increase in four decades, up 70%. In June a Christian woman is executed in North Korea for the crime of distributing Bibles. In June the world's ocean surface temp sets a record of 1.12F (0.62C), beating the previous high mark set in 2005; records began to be kept in 1880; June is also the 2nd warmest on record, and the Jan.-June avg. temp ties 2004 as the 5th warmest on record. In the summer the JVC Jazz Festival in New York City is not held for the first time in 37 years because of financial difficulties; ditto jazz festivals in Chicago and Miami.

On July 1 the govt. of China requires all home PCs to be sold installed with Green Dam software, which blocks access to porno and anything else the govt. wants to censor, under the label 'anti-revolutionary content'. On July 1 the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announces that it is beginning to investigate workplaces in every state to check if they are hiring illegal workers in order to crack down on employers - Pres. Bush didn't do that because he's pro-business? On July 1 the Ariz. Senate by 16-11 okays an Illegal Immigrant Trespasser Bill, which would make Ariz. the only state to make its 500K illegal immigrants (out of 6.5M pop.) into trespassers; the House rejects it by 26-15. On July 1 three opposition leaders, incl. Mohammad Khatami, pres. candidate Mehdi Karroubi, and Mir Hossein Moussavi step it up and openly defy Iran's govt., vowing to resist the Imadinnajacket presidency. On July 1 U.S. defense secy. Robert Gates tells the press that he is directing Pentagon lawyers to find ways to reinterpret the 1993 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' policy to prevent gays from being blackmailed by threatening them with outing.On July 1 a survey by WorldPublicOpinion.org finds that 80% of Pakistanis now consider terrorist groups a 'critical threat' to their country; up from 34% in 2007. On July 1 Calif. begins its fiscal year with a $26.3B deficit, causing it to issue IOUs to state contractors, which on July 20 is handled by a budget deal brokered by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that incl. $15.5B in spending cuts plus borrowing and shifting of state funds without raising taxes; on July 26 after a 24-hour session, the Calif. legislature approves the budget after cutting $1.1B and rejecting a measure allowing new drilling off the Calif. coast for the first time since 1969; meanwhile on Aug. 6 a federal court orders the release of 43K Calif. prisoners due to overcrowding. On July 2 Amnesty Internat. says that Israel inflicted 'wanton destruction' in the Gaza Strip during its Dec.-Jan. offensive against Hamas. On July 2 Italy approves a law criminalizing illegal immigration with a heavy fine plus prison terms for knowingly housing them, permitting unarmed citizens patrols to help the police. On July 2 India decriminalizes homosexuality. On July 3 Alaska gov. (since Dec. 4, 2006) Sarah Palin (1964-) announces her resignation effective July 26 after deciding that she won't run for reelection, and doesn't want to 'embrace the conventional lame duck status', saying 'I'm doing what's best for Alaska', mentioning the need to take care of her family, and adding the immortal soundbyte 'We're fishermen. We know that only dead fish go with the flow'; this stuns the press, who expected her to announce her to announce a run for nat. office; after rumors, the FBI announces on July 5 that she's not being investigated, and she appears again on Facebook, saying that her move is part of a 'higher calling' to 'advance this country together'. On July 30 journalist Lubna-Ahmed al-Hussein along with 12 other women is arrested in a restaurant in Khartoum for wearing trousers, and sentenced to 40 lashes. On July 4 Iranian diplomats attend 4th of July parties in the U.S. for the first time after the Obama admin. with its policy of 'engagement' doesn't have the balls to rescind the invitations. On July 4 visitors are allowed to ascend into the crown of the Statue of Liberty for the first time since 9/11. On July 5 Uighur anti-Han riots in Xiangjian in NW China kill 140 and result in hundreds of arrests; on July 7 hundreds defy a govt.-ordered lockdown, causing the govt. to send in 20K troops on July 8. On July 6 Pres. Obama visits Russia to try and mend strained relations, and on July 6 signs a new nuclear arms control treaty agreeing to cut U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals by 25%, saying that the two countries are not destined to be adversaries, but that 'Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected'; too bad, Russian pres. Dmitry Medeved immediately visits South Ossetia, which he calls a 'new country'. On July 6-7 a cyberattack targets govt. Web sites in the U.S. and South Korea; North Korea is suspected. On July 7-10 the 35th G-88 Summit is held in Italy by the U.S., U.K., Germany, Italy, France, Russia, Canada and Japan; on July 10 they agree to raise $20B over the next three years for food and farm aid; on July 7 Pope Benedict XIV issues the encyclical Charity in Truth (Caritas in Veritate) for the summit, backing the rights of workers to form unions, and calling for a 'true world authority', despite the possibility of 'a dangerous universal power of a tyrannical nature'; he is really backing the U.N.? On July 7 U.S. Defense Dept. lawyer Jeh Charles Johnson (1957-) tells a Senate committee that the govt. may keep terrorism detainees even if they're acquitted. On July 8 a U.S. drone attack kills 25 militants in South Waziristan, Pakistan. On July 8 the climbing jobless rate causes the Obama admin. to put out feelers for yet another stimulus package; on July 14 the Federal Reserve predicts that unemployment will reach 10% in the coming months, and that no net new jobs will created in five years; Obama admits that his earlier prediction that his stimulus package would prevent unemployment from exceeding 8% was wrong, and that it will likely reach 10% (vs. 4% in 2000); it takes 2% increase in GDP to reduce the unemployment rate by 1%, so to go from 10% to 5% it would take a $1.5T increase in GDP. On July 8 Greenpeace activists unfurl a banner on Mount Rushmore next to Abraham Lincoln's bust urging climate change action, resulting in their arrest. On July 8 the state of Mass. files a lawsuit against the U.S. govt. over its 1996 U.S. Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), claiming it undermines same-sex marriages and codifies an animus towards gays and lesbians. On July 9 Uzi Arad, an advisor to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel must have 'tremendously powerful' weapons to destroy any enemy trying to nuke it, letting the cat out of the bag about its own nuke capability; last week one of its three German-made subs sailed from the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal to the Red Sea port of Eilat to send Iran a message. On July 10 Russian pres. Dmitry Medevedev warns the U.S. that if it deploys missile defense systems in Europe, Russia will deploy missiles in an enclave near Poland. On July 10 Pres. Obama visits the Vatican, discussing abortion and stem cell research with the pope, promising to try to reduce the number of abortions in the U.S.; on July 11 he visits Ghana, where he is treated like a god and rock star, visiting the infamous Door of No Return at Cape Coast Castle, comparing it to Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp, and uttering the soundbytes 'We must start from the simple premise that Africa's future is up to Africans', 'The West is not responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy over the last decade, or wars in which children are enlisted as combatants', and 'No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or police can be bought by drug traffickers', adding 'These things can only be done if you take responsibility for your future... But I can promise you this: America will be with you every step of the way, as a partner, as a friend'; too bad, Nigeria feels snubbed. On July 10 U.S. House Dems. announce that they will seek a huge $540B income tax increase to pay for a new Health Care Reform Plan, which they announce on July 14; the same day the Congressional Budget Office predicts that it will add more than $1T to the U.S. nat. debt over 10 years; despite House Dems. claiming that the plan will impose a 5.4% surtax on incomes above $350K a year to pay for it, affecting only the richest 2M taxpayers, U.S. Rep. (R-Tex.) (since 2003) Michael Clifton Burgess (1950-) (a physician) predicts that it will boost costs for small business and force more people into the govt.-run health insurance program - can't we just borrow more money from China? On July 10 Alaska gov. Sarah Palin signs the unanimous House Joint Resolution 27, claiming sovereignty of Alaska, joining Tenn., Idaho, N.D., S.D., Okla. and La. as part of a movement to fight federal govt. encroachment, esp. the Real ID Act of 2005, and Obama's coming health care plan. On July 11 insurgents detonate bombs in Baghdad and Mosul, killing six and wounding 67. On July 13 the U.S. Senate begins confirmation hearings for judge Sonia Sotomayor, who claims that askher guiding principle is 'fidelity to the law'; hostile Sen. (since 2003) Lindsey Olin Graham (1955-) (R-S.C.) (successor to Strom Thurmond) utters the soundbyte 'Unless you have a complete meltdown, you're going to get confirmed', since the Dems. have enough votes to confirm her without Repub. help; four anti-abortion protesters are arrested, incl. original Roe v. Wade 'Jane Roe' litigant Norma Leah McCorvey (1947-); on July 14 Graham questions her judicial temperament, saying that she 'sticks out like a sore thumb' compared to other judges; she says that she will have an 'open mind' on gun rights, adding 'I have friends who hunt', says that she considers the question of abortion rights to be 'settled law' along with a constitutional right to privacy, and attempts to defuse critics of her 'wise Latina' remarks by calling it a 'misunderstanding', and uttering the soundbyte 'To give everyone assurance, I want to state up front and without doubt, I do not believe that any racial, gender, or ethnic group has an advantage in sound judgment, adding 'Life experiences have to influence you. We're not robots who listen to evidence and don't have feelings. We have to recognize those feelings, and put them aside'; she also contradicts Pres. Obama's 'empathy' criterion, with the soundbyte 'I wouldn't approach the issue of judging in the way the president does. He has to explain what he meant by judging. I can only explain what I think judges should do, which is judges can't rely on what's in their heart. They don't determine the law. Congress makes the laws; on July 15 it turns into a circus, with Sen. Al Franken asking her in which episode of Perry Mason he lost his only case; answer: The Case of the Deadly Verdict (Oct. 17, 1963) - but Latina women are wiser than white men, and her friends hunt fish with fishing poles? On July 13 after eight British soldiers are killed in Afghanistan, bringing the British death toll to 184, exceeding losses in Iraq, British PM Gordon Brown tells Parliament that the 9K British troops in Afghanistan have the 'strongest possible plan', plus enough resources 'to do the job'. On July 13 the bodies of 12 Mexican federal agents are found dumped along a mountain road in Michoacan, W Mexico, becoming the highest 1-day death toll for federal forces in the 3-y.-o. drug war; on July 14 Mexican authorities blame the La Familia drug cartel. On July 13 a consortium of 20 cos. incl. Siemens, Deutsche Bank, E.On and Munich Re launch an initiative to build the $555B Saharan Mega Solar Plant (Desertec) in North Africa to supply 15% of Europe's electricity needs. On July 13 Pres. Obama nominates Regina Marcia Benjamin (1956-) as U.S. surgeon gen.; being black, which is taboo to discuss, critics focus on her being 'too fat'? On July 14 Pres. Obama makes a speech at Macomb Community College in Warren (near Detroit), Mich., which suffers from 14% unemployment, proposing the Am. Graduation Initiative, with $12B to be pumped into community colleges to add 5M new grads by 2020. On July 14 U.S. HHS secy. Kathleen Sebellus announces that $350M is available to help states prepare for the 2009 flu season, adding that Mexican swine flu is 'no more lethal than the seasonal flu'. On July 16 the U.N. imposes new sanctions on pesky North Korea in an effort to stifle its nuclear ambitions. On July 16 Pres. Obama addresses the NAACP, uttering the soundbyte 'Make no mistake, the pain of discrimination is still felt in America', with blacks 'out of work more than just about anybody else', and 'more likely to suffer from a host of diseases but less likely to own health insurance', adding 'Government programs alone won't get our children to the Promised Land', and 'One of the most durable and destructive legacies of discrimination is the way we've internalized a sense of limitation; how so many in our community have come to expect so little from the world and from themselves, causing some blacks to criticize him for blaming them for the crisis and for resurrecting Daniel Patrick Moynihan's 1965 'culture of poverty' theory. On July 17 the U.S. Senate by 63-28 approves the ain't-he-cute U.S. Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act as a rider on the DOD bill, becoming the most sweeping expansion of federal hate crimes law since 1968, extending the definition of protected sacred cows in 18 USC 245 to those attacked because of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability; while noble in intent, its implementation at the federal level all because of one cute one-of-a-kind gay victim in Wyoming raises disturbing questions about free speech and whether the concept of states rights and state criminal codes is kaput. On July 17 nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office dir. Douglas Elmendorf tells the U.S. Senate Budget Committee that Pres. Obama's health care proposals won't rein in skyrocketing govt. health care costs, but cost more, countering Obama's soundbyte that his plan will 'bend the curve' with the soundbyte 'The curve is being raised'. On July 17 bombs detonate in the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton luxury hotels in Jakarta, India, killing eight and wounding dozens, embarrassing recently reelected (July 8) pres. (since 2004) Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (1949-). On July 17 Pope Benedict XVI slips in his bath and breaks his right wrist while on holiday in N Italy. On July 19 the New York Times pub. an interview with U.S. Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in which she says that she thought the purpose of Roe v. Wade was to rid the U.S. of those 'that we don't want to have too many of', causing a firestorm of controversy about whether she meant the poor or a race or ethnic group; too bad, the reporter doesn't follow up. On July 19 a Russian-owned civilian heli crashes and burns after takeoff in S Afghanistan's largest NATO base, killing 16 civilians. On July 19 CIT Group, a U.S. lender to small and midsize businesses obtains a $3B emergency loan. On July 19 former Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin calls on Congress and the U.S. people to use the memory of the Apollo 11 Moon landing (July 20, 1969) as an inspiraton for a manned landing on Mars. On July 20 after Hillary Clinton's first trip to India paves, the way, the U.S. and India sign a defense pact, allowing U.S. arm sales to India, to the applause of U.S. defense contractors. On July 20 U.S. defense secy. Robert Gates bolsters U.S. troops in Afghanistan by 22K; meanwhile four GIs are killed by a roadside bomb in E Afghanistan, bringing the July coalition death toll to 55, incl. 30 from the U.S. On July 21 a report special U.S. inspector gen. Neil Barofsky says that the federal govt. has actually devoted $4.7T to bail out the financial sector, and that this could balloon to $23.7T (vs a U.S. GDP of $14T) under worst case conditions ($80K for every U.S. citizen), pissing off the U.S. House, whose members vie to utter memorable soundbytes, incl. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) ('one fraud after another'), and Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.) ('a brave new world'). On July 21 a British judge rules that Google can't be sued for libel just because libelous comments appear in text blurbs in its search results, saying that it isn't publishing them but just 'playing the role of a facilitator'. On July 21 Pres. Obama tells PBS, 'I think that we have stepped back from the abyss. I think we've put out the fire', but that a lot of work remains to do with 'the limited resources' available; meanwhile a USA Today/Gallup Poll reveals disapproval of Obama's handling of the economy by 49% to 47%, and disapproval of his health care policy by 50% to 44%; his overall approval rating is down to 55%, lower than George W. Bush's at the same 6-mo. point into his presidency (56%). On July 21 bombs kill 21 and wound dozens in Baghdad, Ramadi and Baqubah, Iraq. On July 21 Oakland, Calif. becomes the first U.S. city to tax medical marijuana and have a business tax category for pot merchants. On July 22 a 155-mi. (250km) wide 6 min. 39 sec. solar eclipse (longest of the cent. because the Earth is at the farthest part of its orbit) sweeps across India and China, stirring ancient superstitions. On July 22 U.S. state secy. Hillary Clinton visits Bangkok, Thailand, saying that the U.S. will consider creating a defense umbrella over the Persian Gulf region if Iran keeps developing nukes, and signing the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, originally drawn up by the Assoc. of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1976, then signed by China and India in 2003, Russia and South Korea in 2004, and Australia in 2005, with the soundybte that it is 'a very strong statement on behalf of our administration that the United States intends to be a very active presence in the region'. On July 22 despite intensive NRA lobbying, the U.S. Senate by one vote (58-39) defeats a tacked-on provision to their $680B defense authorization bill that would allow certain gun owners to carry concealed weapons across state lines - shoot? On July 22 Pres. Obama gives a press conference to boost his struggling health care reform program, in which he mentions the July 16 arrest of famed black Harvard prof. Henry Louis 'Ski' Gates Jr. (1950-) in his own house near the Harvard campus after being investigated for being a burglar and cleared after producing an ID, the white policeman Sgt. James Crowley trumping up 'disorderly conduct' charges for 'exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior' just for mouthing off to him and other trespassing gun-wagging cops who refuse to produce their badge numbers so he could identify them later, Obama saying that the police 'acted stupidly'; although the charges were dropped, and no charges filed against the police, Gates goes on to speak out against police racial profiling and demand an apology, raising a nat. firestorm of controversy in the PC press, with Obama sticking to his guns and the police backing each other up, and Crowley calling Obama 'way off base', after which Obama calls Crowley and says he should have used different words to avoid inflaming the controversy, but stops short of apologizing to Da Man, and on July 25 Obama invites both of them to the White House for a 1-hour Beer Summit on July 30 in an attempt to get it behind him; the open statements to the press by Crowley that he would arrest anybody who was 'loud and boisterous' (i.e., mouths off to him) in the future raises profound constitutional questions (three strikes of mouthing off to a cop and you get life?); on July 30 Boston policeman Justin Barrett (1973-) is suspended for sending an email calling Gates a 'jungle monkey', and later fired - if Gates had busted in Crowley's home and done the same, what would he have said then? The real problem is that Gates lives in a big house like Obama and has to show his birth certificate in court? On July 23 Georgian pres. (since 2004) Mikheil Saakashvili (1967-) asks visiting U.S. pres. Joe Biden for military aid, advanced weaponry and unarmed observers, but Biden won't bite, although he promises U.S. support. On July 23 44 N.J. politicians, incl. three mayors and five rabbis are arrested in a 10-year federal corruption sting called Operation Bid Rig. On July 24 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Gal. predict that up to 40% of Americans could get swine flu this year and next, and several hundred thousands could die without a successful vaccine campaign. On July 25 Pres. Obama tries to get back on track after the Gates incident, with the Congressional Budget Office saying that his program would save $2B over the next decade in Medicare costs. On July 25 Iran's Revolutionary Guards announce that they will hit Israel's atomic sites with its missiles if attacked first by any of Israel's three German-built subs, with RG CIC Mohammad Ali Jafari uttering the soundbyte that Iran 'was not scared' of Israel's nukes, adding 'It's part of the pyschological war that the West has launched against Iran'. On July 26 supporters of Mir Hossei Moussavi hold rallies in dozens of cities worldwide demanding release of jailed activists and an end to the crackdown. On July 26 U.S. state secy. Hillary Clinton tells the press that the Obama admin. views Russia as a 'great power' in an attempt to defuse statements by vice-pres. Joe Biden that it is saddled with deepening economic problems and backward-looking leadership. On July 26-27 the largest gathering of the Scottish clans in 200 years sees 400K kilt-clad Scots from around the world make merry in Edinburgh to celebrate the 250th anniv. of the birth of poet Robert Burns; Prince Charles opens the event; 125 of 500 clans incl. 85 clan chiefs attend. On July 27-30 U.S. drug czar (since May 7) Richard Gil Kerlikowske (1949-) meets with Mexican atty. gen. Eduardo Medina Mora (1957-) to discuss the Mexican drug war. On July 28 the U.S. and China conclude their first annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue, agreeing on a broad framework of cooperation, incl. maintaining stimulus spending and supporting free trade, with vice-PM Wang Qishan uttering the soundbyte 'As a major reserve currency-issuing country in the world, the United States should properly balance and properly handle the impact of the dollar supply on the domestic economy and the world economy as a whole'. On July 28 Google reaches an agreement with publishers to make scanned books available online in return for 63% of their revenue. On July 30 Nigerian security forces raid the compound of a militant Islamic sect in Maiduguri in N Nigeria, killing 100. On July 30 rumors that a Quran had been defaced at a Christian wedding in Korian, Pakistan in Punjab province causes Muslim riots that kills seven Christians, after which on Aug. 1 800 more Allah Akbars attack Christians in the nearby town of Gorja, killing seven more, some by burning; since blasphemy carries the death penalty, they are just doing Allah's work? - another reason not to allow mass Muslim immigration into any Western country? On July 31 bombs explode near five Shiite mosques around Bag Dead during prayer services, killing 29 followers of anti-U.S. cleric Moqtata al-Sadr, who accuses the Iraqi govt. of being behind it. In July Pres. Obama nominates Francis S. Collins, co-leader of the Human Genome Project to head the Nat. Institutes of Health, stirring controversy because of his non-PC belief in God; meanwhile a Pew Research Center Survey reveals that 1 in 3 scientists believe in God, vs. 83% of the gen pop., about the same as the 1920s. In July Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Corp. launch a 10-year deal to challenge market leader Google with their Bing search engine; when the deal contains no upfront payments to Yahoo, its stock falls 12%. In July U.S. casualties drop to an all-time low of six soldiers and a U.S. Marine, only four in combat related circumstances. In July U.S. personal bankruptcy filings reach 126,434, the highest total since the implementation of the Oct. 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act. In late July noctilucent clouds begin to be observed S of the the polar regions for the first time, incl. Paris, Seattle, and Omaha; the first were observed in 1885; a scientific explanation is not forthcoming; a sign of global warming?

On Aug. 1 Switzerland begins a Big Brother program of intercepting all Internet traffic in real time from a central location. On Aug. 1 100 Iran puts 100+ political activists, incl. several prominent politicians on trial for protesting the election, where several give lengthy confessions praising Imadinnajacket and claiming that his June 12 election was legit - just take that soldering iron out of my anus? On Aug. 2 U.S. treasury secy. Timothy Geithner appears on This Week with George Stephanopoulos on ABC-TV, and reveals that the Obama campaign promise to not raise taxes on Americans earning less than $250K is now being reconsidered, causing the White House to backpedal and reaffirm the campaign promise. On Aug. 2 the White House announces that it will award a Pres. Medal of Freedom to former Irish pres. (1990-7) Mary Robinson (1944-), a longtime opponent of the state of Israel and backer of the 2001 Durban Conference Against Racism that came out against Israel and the U.S. walked out of, creating a firestorm of controversy, incl. the Repub. Jewish Coalition coming out against it. On Aug. 3 a tribal attack in a fishing village in SE Sudan over cattle and territorial rights kills 185+, making 1K for the year. On Aug. 3 a remote-controlled bomb set by the Taliban kills 10 civilians and two police and critically injuries a police chief in Herat in W Afghanistan. On Aug. 3 Der Spiegel reveals that the Roman Catholic Pax Bank in Germany bought stocks in defense, tobacco and birth control cos., causing it to issue a public apology since it had advertised that it never does such things. On Aug. 3 the Chinese govt. seals off the town of Ziketan in Tibet after three die and eight are infected with a pneumonic plague. On Aug. 4 (Pres. Obama's birthday) ex-U.S. pres. Bill Clinton arrives in North Korea on his first diplomatic mission, quickly negotiating the release of U.S. Current TV journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling, succeeding where his wife Hillary (who on Aug. 26 called the North Koreans 'unruly children') couldn't because old fart Dear Leader Kim Jong-il wanted to be seen with handsome in public, and he wanted a chance to get back in the spotlight, despite torpoeding all efforts at isolating North Korea? On Aug. 4 U.S. Sen. (R-N.H.) Judd Gregg of the Senate Budget Committee utters the soundbyte 'We're going to be like a banana republic in 10 years' if the fiscal situation stays on the same track, saying that 'Cash for Clunkers' and like programs could consume up to 80% of the total U.S. economic output via federal spending, adding 'Sure, Americans want the program, but if you do stop and think about it, is it right to do for our children?' On Aug. 4 (8:15 p.m.) bald love-frustrated George Sodini walks into the LA Fitness gym in Bridgeville (near Pittsburgh), Penn., turns off the lights, and opens fire on a women's Latin dance class, firing 50 rounds and killing three and wounding 10 before committing suicide, leaving a blog at georgesodini.com, telling how no woman has wanted him for many years, and that unless he beds a babe soon he will soon see God and Jesus, and won't go to Hell because 'Eternal life does not depend on works... Christ paid for every sin' - he should have been born a Muslim? On Aug. 4 two first-line Akula-class Russian subs are reported patrolling off the E coast of the U.S., raising eyebrows, since ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union the Russian Navy has been nearly kaput - another Hunt for Red October? On Aug. 5 Dem. Senate campaign chief Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) tells ABC News' 'Top Line' that Repubs. are risking an electoral backlash by opposing the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor in large numbers, and that her 'impeccable credentials' have contributed to 'a moment of pride for the Hispanic community throughout this country'; she is confirmed on Aug. 6, and when only 9 of 40 Repub. Senators vote for her, Hispanic leaders go to work to make his warning come true? On Aug. 5, Iranian pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad takes his oath of office for his 2nd term despite all the protests and repression, incl. shouts of 'death to the dictator'. On Aug. 5 (1 a.m.) a U.S. Predator drone kills Pakistani tribal leader Baitullah Mehsud at his father-in-law's house in South Waziristan; it also takes out seven bodyguards, his wife, and 25 others. On Aug. 6 on an 11-day tour of seven countries in Africa, U.S. state secy. Hillary Clinton speaks in Kenya, saying that it is a 'great regret' that the U.S. is not a member of the Internat. Criminal Court that tries people for genocide and crimes against humanity - if it joined then every U.S. politician back to Washington would be indicted? On Aug. 6 the super-popular Twitter Web site becomes the victim of a denial of service attack, causing a Tweetapocalypse and Tweet withdrawal systems for 45M visitors; as attacks continue for days, it is traced to attempts to shut down the Web pages of a prof. from the Repub. of Ga. who is trying to explain the history of the war with Russia? On Aug. 7 three more regional U.S. banks fail, bring the total to 72, almost tripling the 2008 total of 25. On Aug. 7 Typhoon Morakot hits Taiwan, killing 600 via mudslides. On Aug. 7 before leaving for Mexico, Pres. Obama meets with Hispanic media outlets and announces that he won't push immigration reform until next year despite his promise to do it this year; he also jokes about himself being called an illegal immigrant. On Aug. 7 Sarah Palin posts on Facebook, saying that Pres. Obama's health care plan that incl. regular physician consultations with the elderly will turn into a 'death panel' that decides whether they should be euthanized; after many of her supporters call her comments nuts, she backs down a little and tries to change the subject, only go have Sen. (R-Iowa) Charles Grassley tell voters, 'You have every right to fear. You shouldn't have counseling at the end of life, you should have done that 20 years before, should not have a government run plan to decide when to pull the plug on grandma'; Rahm Emanuel's physician brother Ezekiel J. 'Zek' Emanuel (1957-) (an Obama advisor) is a leading opponent of state-assisted suicide, and a backer of Obama's health care program, and known for a 1996 report in which he proposed that health services should be socially guaranteed to those who are capable of being participative citizens, and not guaranteed to those with dementia; on Aug. 11 Obama gives a town hall meeting in Portsmouth, N.H., claiming that the Am. Assoc. of Retired Persons (AARP) backs his plan, causing them to state that they haven't endorsed it. On Aug. 8 a riot by 1.3K of 5.9K inmates at overcrowded Chino Prison 40 mi. E of Los Angeles, Calif. sparked by racial tensions between blacks and Latinos injures almost 200 inmates; a federal 3-judge panel ordered Calif. to reduce prison pop. less than 2 weeks earlier. On Aug. 8 (11 a.m.) a tourist heli and small plane collide over the Hudson River in New York City, killing nine, becoming the city's worst air of the narrow air corridor there. On Aug. 9-10 the 4th Annual North Am. Leader's (Three Amigos) Summit in Guadalajara, Mexico is attended by Pres. Obama, Mexican pres. Felipe Calderon, Canadian PM Stephen Harper, who discuss the H1N1 virus problem and trade issues, stirring fears of a horrible secret North Am. Union. On Aug. 10 yet more bombs hit Shiite areas of Baghdad, killing 33 more, bringing the total to 100+ in four days in Irock. On Aug. 10 U.S. gen. Stanley McChrystal tells the press that the Taliban have advanced out of their old strongholds in S and E Afghanistan, and are gaining the upper hand as they move N and W. On Aug. 10 Hillary Clinton gets ballsy, er, testy after a Congolese univ. student asks what her hubby Bill thinks about a multibillion dollar Chinese loan offer to Congo, replying 'My husband is not secretary of state, I am'. I am not going to be channeling my husband'; Bill's recent triumph in North Korea has gotten under her skin?; later it is revealed that the translator made a mistake, and should have said Pres. Obama not Bill Clinton; on Aug. 11 she sees evidence of the brutality in E Congo, incl. violent rapes, and is visibly shaken, calling it 'evil in its basest form'. On Aug. 11 after a public outcry, the House cancels plans to spend $550M on passenger jets for lawmakers and senior govt. officials. On Aug. 11 the U.S. returns $2.4M to Mexico's tax admin. that it seized during an investigation into smuggled oil, revealing that U.S. refineries bought millions of dollars worth of oil stolen from Mexican govt. pipelines and smuggled by Mexican drug cartels, hurting the Mexican oil monopoly Pemex, whose production fell 7.5% in the first half of the year; meanwhile on Aug. 11 a federal indictment is brought against the Salt Lake City, Utah Alcala Law Firm and others for conspiring to get illegal visas for Mexican workers in Utah. On Aug. 12 U.S. lt. gen. Rick Lynch tells the press that he's urging the military to deploy more unmanned vehicles on the ground to go with the unmanned drones, with the soundbyte 'Let's get those kids out of the vehicles' in Iraq and Afghanistan - one day the U.S. military will consist of robot soldiers commanded by human officers? On Aug. 12 a battle between Philippine troops and Muslim Abu Sayyaf guerrillas in Basilan Island kills 53+, incl. 30 guerrillas. On Aug. 12 Bishop Edir Macedo and nine others linked to the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in Brazil are charged with siphoning billions of dollars in donations from mostly poor followers for personal use. On Aug. 12 Pres. Obama awards the Medal of Freedom to 16 'agents of change', incl. Billie Jean King, Sidney Poitier, Ted Kennedy, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Sandra Day O'Connor, homeless medical carer leader Pedro Jose 'Joe' Greer Jr., Mary Robinson (protested by Jewish orgs.), Stephen Hawking, Chita Rivera, Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh, even two posthumous ones to Harvey Milk and Repub. rep. Jack Kemp (token white guy?). On Aug. 13 a double suicide bombing in the Kurdish-speaking Yazidi city of Sinjar in a cafe packed with young people in NW Iraq kills 21; four suicide truck bombers already took out the nearby village of Qhataniya on Aug. 14, 2007, killing 500 Yazidis. On Aug. 13 25K demonstrate in Copenhagen, Denmark over the forced deportation of a group of 121 Iraqi refugees, who were arrested by the police as they take refuge in Brorson Church the previous night. On Aug. 14 the govt. of Russian-controlled South Ossetia asks residents to turn in their weapons, prosecuting 50 for illegal possession and offering $300-$400 reward for each Kalashnikov rifle. On Aug. 14 Pakistan lifts a ban on political activity in its tribal regions near the Afghan border, granting them parliamentary rep in hopes of reducing the influence of the Taliban. On Aug. 14 Venezuela okays a new education law mandating the teaching of Hugo Chavez' Bolivarian Doctrine (based on Simon Bolivar, featuring nat. self-determination and Latin Am. unity), causing cries of indoctrination in Socialism. On Aug. 14 the Australian high court grants quadraplegic Christian Rossiter (1960-) the right to refuse food and water and die without his nursing facility being held criminally liable. On Aug. 15 a Taliban suicide car bomb near the main gate of the NATO-led internat. mission in Kabul kills three Afghans and wounds 70. On Aug. 15 despite the military retaking the area, a suicide car bomber in the Swat, Valley of NW Pakistan kills five. On Aug. 15 Pres. Obama hosts a town-hall meeting in Grand Junction, Colo., being greeted by protesters outside, where a univ. student asks him how private insurers can compete with the govt., causing him to reply that the 'public option' (a new govt. insurance program similar to Medicare) is only a small piece of his health care reform program, and he mainly wants to control costs, expand coverage, protect consumers, and improve efficiency; on Aug. 16 U.S. HHS secy. Kathleen Sebelius tells CNN Sun. Morning that the public option 'is not the essential element'; too bad, later that day White House health reform comm. dir. Linda Douglass releases a statement saying 'Nothing has changed. The president... believes the public option is the best way to achieve those goals'; later U.S. Sen. (D-N.D.) (since 1987) Kent Conrad (1948-) proposes govt.-funded private cooperatives as an alternative to a govt. plan; meanwhile new Canadian Medical Assoc. pres. Anne Doig admits that Canadian patients get less than optimal care, and says that the system is 'imploding'. On Aug. 17 a Muslim suicide truck bomber at a police HQ in the main city of Nazran, Ingushetia kills 20 and wounds 118, becoming the deadliest attack in the North Caucasus region since 2005; the Muslims are lapping at the S flank of Russia? On Aug. 17 Sunni Muslim Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan militant party leader Ali Sher Haideri is shot and killed in a sectarian attack in Khairpur, Pakistan (150 mi. NE of Karachi). On Aug. 17 Albert Gojnzales and two Russians are indicted for stealing 130M+ credit and debit card numbers in 2006-8 in the largest hacking and ID theft case ever prosecuted (until ?). On Aug. 17 John Morton, new head (since May) of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announces that he has ended quotas on illegal immigrants who have ignored deportation orders, and will target those who already have had their day in court. On Aug. 17 the Obama admin. announces that the 1996 U.S. Defense of Marriage Act that denies benefits to gay domestic partners of federal employees and allows states to reject same-sex marriages performed in other states should be repealed, er, repealed. On Aug. 17 Hurricane Bill (first hurricane of the 2009 Atlantic season) heads toward Bermuda; meanwhile Tropical Storm Ana dissipates. On Aug. 17 the identity of anonymous blogger of Skanks in NYC is ordered revealed by New York Supreme Court judge Joan Madden for comments about Canadian-born model Luskula Cohen (1972-), incl. 'skank', 'ho', and 'psychotic'; after Fashion Inst. of Tech. student Rosemary Port is unmasked, Cohen decides to drop her defamation suit, saying she just wanted to make a point, after which Port announces her intention of suing Google for $15M because it 'breached its fiduciary duty to protect her expectation of anononymity'. On Aug. 18 the Armed Dozen, a group of pro-gun rights demonstrators carry firearms outside Pres. Obama's health care rally in Phoenix, Ariz., where 'open carry' is legal throughout the state; one named Chris carries an automatic AR-15 rifle, calling it a 'publicity stunt', with the soundbyte 'We will forcefully resist people imposing their will on us through the strength of the majority with a vote,' Chris later tells an Obama supporter in the video... Just because you sic the government on people doesn't make it morally okay to steal money from people. Taxation is theft'; the NRA claims to be embarrassed by then; back in 1996 Pres. Clinton praised law enforcement for arresting the 12-man Viper Militia in Phoenix for doing even less? On Aug. 18 a suicide car bomber kills 7+ in Kabul, while a Taliban rocket hits the pres. palace grounds as violence across Afghanistan precedes the election; on Aug. 19 gunmen storm a bldg. in Kabul and battle police for hours, becoming the 3rd attack in Kabul in five days; on Aug. 20 elections in Afghanistan reelect pres. Hamid Karzai to a 2nd term, although his chief Abdullah Abdullah also claims a V; Afghani women stay away from the polls; meanwhile the U.S. reveals a plan to make finance minister Ashraf Ghani into a chief exec serving beneath him. On Aug. 18 (07:40 GMT) South Korea launches its first satellite, the $400M Naro-1, pissing off North Korea. On Aug. 18 Pres. Obama holds talks with Egyptian pres. Hosni Mubarak in Washington, D.C., hoping to unstall the Middle East peace process. On Aug. 18 a senior Iranian official announces that Iran is ready for negotiations with the West on its nuclear program based on mutual respect and without preconditions; meanwhile RPGs and other weapons are found on an Australian cargo vessel en route from North Korea that is searched by the UAE, which Iranian officials deny are bound for them, calling it all a 'Zionist plot'. On Aug. 19 a series of explosions kills 75+ and wounds 300+ in C Baghdad, becoming the deadliest day since U.S. troops left in June, and showing that without the U.S. the Iraqi govt. is doomed? On Aug. 19 an ABC News-Washington Post Poll reveals that a majority (51%) of the U.S. pop. thinks that the war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting; 47% thinks it is. On Aug. 20 pres. Imadinnajacket picks Ahmad Vahidi as the new Iranian defense minister; he is suspected to be an internat. terrorist connected with the 1994 attack on a Jewish community center in Argentina; criticism of his appointment is called a 'Zionist plot' - and now you get to obliterate Israel itself with our new nukes? On Aug. 20 Chilean authorities that they have detected the H1N1 swine flu in turkeys, becoming the first time it's been detected outside humans and pigs - the real Fifth Element? On Aug. 20 Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the only person convicted for the 1988 Lockerbie, Scotland jet bombing arrives in Libya to cheers after only serving eight years of his 27-year min. sentence for murdering 270 infidels because he has terminal prostate cancer, drawing criticism from FBI dir. Robert Mueller, U.S. JCS Adm. Mike Mullen et al., along with the victims' families, putting Scottish justice secy. Kenny MacAskill on the grill for making the decision to free the bum; meanwhile a Libyan nutcase leader Muammar Gaddafi (1942-) plans to visit the U.S. for the first time in Sept., being refused permission to pitch his Bedouin tent in New York's Central Park then settling for Englewood, N.J., pissing off state residents, who lost 38 in the Lockerbie bombing - they should have put a bomb on the bum's plane to Libya, and Daffy Duck's plane to New York? On Aug. 20 a new Zogby Poll is released, showing Pres. Obama's voter approval sliding to 45.3%, with only 37.5% of independents approving of his handling of his job. On Aug. 20 Mexico enacts a new Drug Decriminalization Law, setting maximum 'personal use' limits for LSD, marijuana, cocaine, meth, heroin et al.; too bad, they still require mandatory treatment if you're cited for a 3rd time; meanwhile on Aug. 24 the supreme court of Argentina rules it unconstitutional to punish an adult for private use for marijuana. On Aug. 20 Hustler pub. Larry Flynt pub. an article titled Common Sense 2009, calling for a 1-day gen. strike throughout the U.S., with the soundbyte 'The American government - which we once called our government - has been taken over by Wall Street, the mega-corporations and the super-rich. They are the ones who decide our fate. It is this group of powerful elites, the people President Franklin D. Roosevelt called 'economic royalists', who choose our elected officials - indeed, our very form of government. Both Democrats and Republicans dance to the tune of their corporate masters. In America, corporations do not control the government. In America, corporations are the government. This was never more obvious than with the Wall Street bailout, whereby the very corporations that caused the collapse of our economy were rewarded with taxpayer dollars. So arrogant, so smug were they that, without a moment's hesitation, they took our money - yours and mine - to pay their executives multimillion-dollar bonuses, something they continue doing to this very day. They have no shame. They don't care what you and I think about them. Henry Kissinger refers to us as 'useless eaters'.' On Aug. 20 (8:30 p.m.) millions in China claim to see two huge rotating glowing mist-shrouded saucer-shaped UFOs. On Aug. 21 the U.N. Refugee Agency expresses shock at reports that a sinking boat carrying illegal immigrants from Libya is ignored by passing vessels, causing 75 of 77 to die en route to Italy. On Aug. 23 (Sun.) the body of pastor Carol Daniele (b. 1938) is found brutally murdered in Christ Holy Sanctified Church in Anadarko, Okla., riling people up. On Aug. 24 the Obama admin. admits that the 10-year budget deficit will be $2T more than originally forecast, reaching $9T. On Aug. 24 U.S. atty. gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. wins his argument against CIA dir. Leon E. Panetta, getting cases of suspected torture by CIA officers during the Bush admin. reopened; meanwhile on Aug. 25 Pres. Obama renominates Ben Bernanke for a 2nd term as chmn. of the Federal Reserve. On Aug. 24 pres. panel announces that H1N1 swine flu could infect half of the U.S. pop. this fall and winter, causing up to 90K deaths and hospitalizing up to 1.8M. On Aug. 24 the CIA releases its Guidelines for Interrogating High-Value Detainees, detailing methods incl. slamming their head against the wall up to 30x. On Aug. 25 a 16-y.-o. neo-Nazi man is arrested in a Moscow bomb plot. On Aug. 25 Britain unveils proposed laws to cut off Internet access to people who repeatedly pirate films and music, raising an outcry. On Aug. 25 Rodolphe Adada of the Repub. of the Congo, head of the U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur resigns. On Aug. 26 Franklin, Ky. circuit judge Thomas Wingate strikes down a 2006 Ky. law requiring the Ky. state office of homeland security to stress 'dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth'. On Aug. 27 Taiwan pres. Ma Ying-jeou decides to allow the Dalai Lama to visit, pissing off China, whom he pleased by refusing the same trip last Dec., saying that it would ease the pain from Typhoon Marakot. On Aug. 27 Iranian supereme assaholla Ali Khamenei says that there is no proof that the reformists were working with the West, pulling the rug from under pres. Imadinnajacket's prosecutors, but plays both sides by adding 'There is no doubt that the events were planned, no matter whether their leaders knew it or not'. On Aug. 27 Jaycee Lee Dugard (1980-), who was abducted while waiting for a school bus at age 11 in South Lake Tahoe 18 years ago wanders into a parole office in a town near San Francisco, Calif., telling a tell of her abuser, 58-y.-o. Philip Garrido, who is arrested. On Aug. 28 a suicide bombing at the main NATO border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan kills 18+ Pakistani security officials. On Aug. 29 leaders of 12 Latin Am. nations hold a Union of South Am. Nations (Unasur) Summit in Argentina to discuss expanding U.S.-Colombia military ties; meanwhile Venezuelan pres. Hugo Chavez accuses the U.S. of plans to topple govts. and steal the region's resources. On Aug. 30 elections in Japan are a giant V for the opposition Dem. Party, ending 54 years of 1-party rule; they were called early by PM Taro Aso after his Liberal Dem. Party (LDP) coalition lost an election on July 12 in the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election, dethroning it as the assembly's largest party. In Aug. Calif. wildfires threaten 12K+ homes and kill two firefighters. In Aug. a strike wave sweeps Serbia, with 33K striking daily in 40-45 mostly privatized firms that aren't paying salaries or health insurance. In Aug. a Stop Minaret Movement in Switzerland, where 400K Muslims now live gathers momentum, with MP Ulrich Schuler uttering the soundbyte 'They are symbols of a desire for power, of an Islam which wants to establish a legal and social order fundamentally contrary to the liberties guaranteed in our constitution.' In Aug. the Mid-Season Review, Budget of the U.S. Govt., Fiscal Year 2010 reveals that the U.S. govt. will have to borrow 39.9% of its total expenditures in 2010. In Aug. the SRI Internat. Report on Online Education, commissioned by the U.S. Dept. of Education finds that online education beats classroom education. In Aug. the U.S. strikes a deal with Swiss bank UBS to reveal the names of 4,450 secret bank account holders, signalling the beginning of the end of internat. tax cheating? In Aug.-Sept. the U.S. and British govt. spend millions of dollars to try to persuade Afghan farmers to give up growing poppies and substitute wheat and fruit, offering them cheap credit and jobs; the poppy planting season begins in Oct.

On Sept. 1 Category 5 Hurricane Jimena races toward Baja Calif., weakening to Category 1 then killing one, a 74-y.-o. man. On Sept. 1 the FCC prohibits robo-calls on the telephone except when agreed to by the recipient; too bad, there are so many exceptions, incl. bill collectors and charities that it won't change anything. On Sept. 2 the Obama admin. proposes using $85B of the stimulus money to extend tax breaks for the working poor over the next decade, causing criticism that he pleged to use it to pay for new policies. On Sept. 2 a 7.0 earthquake in Indonesia kills 33 and forces thousands to evacuate Indonesia's main island. On Sept. 2 a Taliban suicide bomber attacks officials leaving a mosque E of Kabul, killing Afghanistan's chief deputy intel chief Abdullah Laghmani plus 22 others - Afghanistan is becoming Obama's Vietnam? On Sept. 2 a dozen hooden gunmen burst into a rehabiliation clinic in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico near the U.S. border, lining up and killing 17 and wounding 3 patients because these clinics allegedly protect dealers from rival gangs; 10K troops and police in the city don't stop them. On Sept. 2 Obama health care reform opponent William Rice (1934-) has his finger bitten off by an Obama supporter at a vigil in Thousand Oaks, Calif. organied by MoveOn.org. On Sept. 2 U.S. drug maker Pfizer agrees to a record $2.3B health care fraud settlement - to them that's chickenfeed? On Sept. 3 after Charlie Gibson announces his intention of resigning, ABC-News announces that Diane Sawyer will replace him. On Sept. 4 a NATO air strike against two Taliban-hijacked fuel tankers in Kunduz province in N Afghanistan kills 90, incl. civilians who are burned alive in a giant fireball, pissing off the Afghanis. On Sept. 6 after conservative commentator Glenn Beck puts on the pressure, Anthony 'Van' Jones (1968-), Obama's special adviser for green jobs (since Mar.) with the White House Council on Environmental Quality resigns after Repub. pressure linking him to the 2004 9/11 Truth Statement by 911Truth.org calling for Congress to investigate whether 9/11 was caused or allowed by the govt., plus derogatory comments about Repubs. On Sept. 6 Li Zhi, secy. of the Communist Party in Urumqi, China is removed after reports of bizarre needle attacks amid the mob violence. On Sept. 7 (Mon.) the U.S. celebrates Labor Day after losing 7M jobs since the start of the recession in Dec. 2007, incl. 12% unemployment in Calif. since July and 9.7% nationwide. On Sept. 8 Pres. Obama delivers his Address to Students Across America, becoming the first U.S. pres. to speak directly to the nation's school children. On Sept. 8 Vietnamese-Am. Yale U. pharmacology student Annie Le (b. 1985) disappears from a lab, with 60 cameras showing her entering but not leaving; on Sept. 13 police find her body stuffed in a wall on the day of her planned wedding. On Sept. 9 (9/9/09 - lucky day to the Chinese) U.S. defense secy. Robert M. Gates gives his first interview to al-Jazeera TV network, admitting that the U.S. made a 'serious strategic mistake' when it turned its back on Afghanistan after the Soviets were defeated there, and pledging that 'both Afghanistan and Pakistan can count on us for the long term' - meaning how many months? On Sept. 9 NATO troops free British NYT reporter Stephen Farrell in N Afghanistan; too bad, his colleague Mohammad Sultan Munadi plus a British soldier and civilian are killed during the rescue. On Sept. 9 the French newspaper Le Figaro carries an interview with Venezuelan pres. Hugo Chavez in which he claims that the 22-day Israeli bombing of Gaza starting last Dec. 27 that killed 1.3K Palestinians was unprovoked, and accuses Israel of genocide, calling for sanctions to be imposed; meanwhile on Sept. 9-10 Chavez visits Moscow, predicting that U.S. influence in the world is 'dying' and will be replaced in 'the next decades' by a 'multi-polar' world led by Russia. On Sept. 9 Uruguay permits same-sex couples to adopt children. On Sept. 9 after speaking at a memorial in New York City to Walter Cronkite and calling on the media to take his lead, Pres. Obama addresses a joint session of Congress to promote his health care reform program, saying it's the 'season for action', and invoking the memory of late Sen. Edward M. 'Ted' Kennedy, uttering the soundbytes 'A bill for comprehensive health reform was first introduced by John Dingell Sr. in 1943. 65 years later, his son continues to introduce that same bill at the beginning of each session'; 'I will not sign it if it adds one dime to the deficit now or in the future'; 'I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last'; he gives a nod to Sen. John McCain for wanting to insure the poor against catastrophic medical expenses, and gets applause from Repubs. for endorsing medical malpractice limits, but draws silence with the soundbyte 'I will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it's better politics to kill this plan than improve it'; when he asserts that his plan won't provide coverage for illegal immigrants, Repub. S.C. Sen. (2001-) Addison Graves 'Joe' Wilson Sr. (1947-) yells out 'You lie', breaking House Rules Section 370, and later apologizes amid talk of censure, but only in writing, and on Sept. 15 the House votes 240-179-5 (incl. 7 of 174 Repubs. and 233 of 250 Dems.) for a resolution of disapproval; on Sept. 15 (evening) former U.S. pres. Jimmy Carter says that much of the vitriol against Obama's health reforms and spending plans is 'based on racism'; Pres. Clinton tried a similar speech in 1993, and his plan was defeated sans heckling; too bad, public support for his program (42%) does not improve after the speech; on Sept. 16 Senate Finance Committee Chmn. Max Baucus unveils a $856B health care reform plan sans Repub. support. On Sept. 10 a U.N. report recommends a new global currency to replace the ever-weakening U.S. dollar, stirring fear among Americans who know how being the world's reserve currency gives the U.S. the ability to use it as a weapon. On Sept. 10-11 inmates at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq riot, demanding better living conditions. On Sept. 11 silence is observed at 8:46, 9:03, 9:59, and 10:29 in New York City in observance of the 8th anniv. of 9/11; meanwhile as Pres. Obama is travelling to observe it, an ill-timed a Coast Guard training exercise in the Potomac River near the Pentagon pisses people off. On Sept. 11 Iranian supreme you know what Ali Khamenei warns the reformists that they will face a 'harsh response' if they don't give up. On Sept. 11 Harlan James Drake (1976-) drives by a school in Owosso, Mich. and guns down abortion protester James Pouillon for carrying a sign showing a fetus, then drives to a grave pit and shoots owner Mike Fuoss, finally being captured before he can pull off a 3rd planned shooting. On Sept. 11 'Lebanese Bernie Madoff' Salah Ezzedine is charged with fraud in connection with his billion-dollar pyramid scheme. On Sept. 12 two German merchant ships traverse the fabled Northeast Passage after melting ice opens a route from South Korea along Russia's Arctic coast to Siberia. On Sept. 12 police in Baghdad find a bomb hidden inside a Quran outside the Musa al-Khadim Shiite mosque; meanwhile two bombs go off near another Shiite mosque. On Sept. 12 Thabet bin Laden (b. ?), brother of Osama bin Laden (one of 54 children of Yemeni-born Mohammed bin Laden, who moved to Saudi Arabia and got rich in the construction biz) dies. On Sept. 12 U.S. Census worker Bill Sparkman (b. 1958) is found hanged in Daniel Boone Nat. Forest in SE Ky. with the word 'fed' scrawled on his chest. On Sept. 13 200K-500K march on Washington, D.C., incl. 75K down Pennsylvania Ave. to protest the Joker, er, Pres. Obama and the leftward direction being taken by his admin., with many calling him a Socialist or Marxist, pointing to his advisers as proof. On Sept. 13 al-Qaida terrorist Saleh Ali Nabhan is killed by U.S. forces in S Somalia; meanwhile an audio message from Osama bin Laden to the U.S. people on the anniv. of 9/11 is released, warning them to quit support Israel or else al-Qaida will proceed 'on all possible fronts'. On Sept. 14 Pres. Obama gives a speech at Federal Hall on Wall St. near the NYSE in New York City on the 1-year anniv. of the Lehman Bros. collapse (the end of the most wealthy and happy period in U.S. history, which began with the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, after which the U.S. begins its final slide toward Da End?), pushing for more financial regulation of Wall St., tasking it for 'complacency', and uttering the soundbyte 'The old ways that led to this crisis cannot stand. History cannot be allowed to repeat itself'; he arrogantly gave the speech while the markets were open? On Sept. 14 the U.S. Senate votes to end funding for the Assoc. of Community Orgs. for Reform Now (ACORN) (founded 1973 for working and non-working poor, and growing to 400K members, backing Obama's campaign last year) after proof that its members were conspiring to help undercover reporters avoid taxes for criminal enterprises; the House follows suit on Sept. 17 by a 345-75 bipartisan vote, with #2 House Repub. Eric Cantor of Va. calling it a 'corrupt organization'. On Sept. 15 Federal Reserve chmn. Ben S. Bernanke announces that the recession is 'very likely over'. On Sept. 15 JCS chmn. U.S. Adm. Michael Mullen tells the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee that the U.S. 'probably' needs to send more troops to Afghanistan. On Sept. 16 Denver shuttle bus driver Najibullah Zazi (1985-) and his aunt Rabia Zazi of Aurora, Colo. are questioned by the FBI about terrorist ties, and their homes searched; after hours of questioning he admits 'possible' al-Qaida links, and on Sept. 24 he is charged with a conspiracy to use bombs made from chemicals purchased at beauty supply stores - the al-shampoo conspiracy? On Sept. 16 AFL-CIO head (since 1995) John Sweeny resigns, and his long-time lt. Richard Trumka (UMW pres. from 1982-95, who presided over its virtual destruction?) is elected to replace him as pres. #4 (until ?). On Sept. 16 the U.S. military announces the closing of Camp Bucca, a large prison in S Iraq, turning it over to the Iraqi govt., who takes custody of all but 180 of the detainees. On Sept. 17 a suicide bomber attacks a convoy of Italian NATO soldiers in the heart of Kaboom, er, Kabul, killing six, plus 10 civilians; 50+ are injured; the 3rd suicide bomb in Kabul in the last 5 weeks. On Sept. 17 the Obama admin. announces that it is shelving the Bush admin. plan for a missile defense system for Poland and the Czech Repub., saying that the Iranian Shish-Kebab, er, Shebab-3 ballistic missile isn't developed enough to be a threat, pleasing Russia greatly, with State Duma foreign affairs committee head Konstantin Kosachev uttering the soundbyte 'The U.S. president's decision is a well-thought and systematic one. Now we can talk about restoration of strategic partnership between Russia and the United States'; U.S. Navy ships based in the Mediterranean and North Sea will plug the gap; Obama's ties to Gen. Electric are behind the decision? On Sept. 17 U.S. official Bisa Williams meets with Cuban officials to resume bilateral mail service, staying for several days. On Sept. 18 suicide bombers from the Islamic Al-Shabab insurgent group in cars with U.N. logos kill 11 at the main base of African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu, Somalia in revenge for a U.S. raid that killed al-Qaida leader Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in S Somalia on Sept. 14. On Sept. 18 a suicide car bomber in Kohat, Pakistan (100 mi. SW of Islamabad) kills 33 and wounds 80 shoppers stocking up for a holiday. On Sept. 18 Islamic terrorist leader Noordin Muhammed Top is killed in Solo, Indonesia to get even for the Bali night club bombings. On Sept. 18 tens of thousands of opposition protesters march in Tehran, hijacking a govt.-organized anti-Israel march. On Sept. 20 Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, referring to his 2004 anti-nuke fatwa announces on TV that Iran isn't developing nukes, saying 'We fundamentally reject nuclear weapons and prohibit their use and production'; coincidentally or not, the nuclear shield over Eastern Europe cancelled by the Obama admin. was designed to protect against Iranian nuclear missiles. On Sept. 20 the nat. flag of the Communist People's Repub. of China is hoisted on the South Lawn of the White House to celebrate Red China's 60th anniv.; on Sept. 22 Pres. Obama meets with Chinese pres. Hu Jintao in New York City to discuss the new U.S. tariffs on Chinese tires - and we intend to stay? On Sept. 21 U.S. FCC chmn. Julius Genachowski proposes that his agency expand and take control, er, formalize rules to keep Internet providers from discriminating against certain content - the first step along the road to total govt. control of the Internet? On Sept. 22 three vans loaded with scores of Mexicans try to run the U.S.-Mexico border at San Diego, Calif., causing U.S. customs agents to fire on the van and close down the station, wounding the driver and a passenger, after which two Mexican men are arrested on federal human trafficking charges. On Sept. 23 Pres. Obama makes his first address to the U.N. Gen. Assembly, saying that he intends to begin a 'new era of engagement' with the world based on 'mutual respect', and that the task of solving global crises 'cannot be solely America's endeavor'; he meets with Russian pres. Dmitry Medvedev and gets a concession to consider tough new sanctions against Iran and support him on Sept. 24 as he chairs a historic meeting of the 15-member U.N. Security Council (5th time it has met at the heads-of-state level since 1946, and first chaired by a U.S. pres.) , which unanimously approves a U.S.-drafted resolution calling on nations with nukes to scrap their arsenals; China, who agrees to the resolution also tells everybody that stepping up pressure on Iran isn't an effective way to persuade them to halt is nuclear program, dissing the Sept. 23 resolution of the five permanent security council members that Iran has until Oct. 1 to prepare a 'serious response' to its demands to halt or face consequences, which doesn't phase them, since on Sept. 27-28 Iran tests short and long-range missiles capable of hitting Israel and Europe - so Obama's going to show them how to get rid of all their nukes by doing it first, by exploding them in Iran? On Sept. 23 Iranian pres. Imajackass gives his speech to the U.N., which bashes Israel as usual, causing 11 countries to walk out, causing Israeli pres. Benjamin Netanyahu to condemn the U.N. for allowing him to speak since he also denies the Holocaust; meanwhile on Sept. 25 Obama, Sarkozy and Brown accuse Iran of building a secret underground nuke plant, causing him to cave and announce that he will open it to inspection. On Sept. 24-25 the 2009 G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, Penn. (which the Obama admin. considers a poster boy for economic recovery) works to reform the IMF amid mucho protesters. On Sept. 25 (Dar ul Islam) a Muslim Nat. Prayer Day, organized by anti-Semitic Sheik Ahmed Dewidar and atty. Hassen Abdellah (who defended the Muslim terrorists accused in the 1993 WTC bombing) sees only 5K-8K of 50K promised Muslims show up in Washington, D.C. for a 'jummah' prayer event in front of the U.S. Capitol, with signs saying 'The White House will become the Muslim House' et al.; meanwhile illegal Jordani immigrant Hosam Maher Husein Smadi (1990-) is charged with attempting to use a WMD in Dallas, Tex. On Sept. 28 the Dow Jones Industrial Avg. closes at 9,789.36, up 124.17 points. On Sept. 28 Pres. Obama announces that he's flying to Copenhagen to pitch his town of Chicago, Ill. for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, becoming the first time for a U.S. pres. On Sept. 29 the U.S. Senate Finance Committee rejects the govt.-run 'public' insurance option for the healthcare overhaul plan; too bad, that means that the rest of the plan is moving toward passing since it will keep Repubs. from mustering 60 votes to block it procedurally. On Sept. 30 the U.S. economy collapses not. On Sept. 30 the London Financial Times calls the rulers of Iran 'cheats and deceivers' who 'cannot be remotely trusted' in regard to its nuclear program. On Sept. 30 a typhoon causes a series of tsunamis that hit the Pacific island nations of Am. and Western Samoa, killing 100+; meanwhile Vietnam's central province get their biggest floods in decades, killing 40. On Sept. 30 U.S. Gen. Ray Odierno tells Congress that 4K troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of Oct. as part of the plan to get them all out by Sept. 2010. On Sept. 30 a suicide bomber rams a military convoy of foreign forces in the Mandozai District of Khost province in SE Afghanistan, killing one GI. On Sept. 30 U.S. transportation secy. Ray LaHood releases figures showing that 5.8K+ were killed and 515K injured in 2008 in car crashes in the U.S. tied to distracted driving, mainly texting behind da wheel. In Sept. Joachim Crima, a black watermelon seller from Guinea Bissau bucks the rampant racism of Russia to run for public office in Srednyaya Akhtuba in S Russia, becoming the first black in Russian history to run for office. In Sept. a Draft Report on Sex Education by UNESCO recommends that children ages 5 and up be taught about masturbation, abortion, same-sex relationships and STDs. In Sept. 28-y.-o. wunderkind Gustavo Dudamel (1981-) of Venezuela becomes dir. of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (until 2014), causing Dudamelomania, a resurgence of interest in classical music; on Oct. 3 he conducts his first concert called 'Bienvenido Gustavo'.

On Oct. 1 Communist China celebrates its 60th anniv. with its biggest-ever military parade, incl. hundreds of thousands of soldiers complete with all the hardware - standing between the Chinese people and freedom? On Oct. 2 a suicide bomber hits a U.S. convoy in S Afghanistan, killing two U.S. soldiers; meanwhile officials announce that they got a U.S. and a British soldier on Oct. 1 to say Happy October, Infidels. On Oct. 3 (dawn) Egyptian police arrest some Christian Copts in Alexandria for being related to Rafaat Girges Habib (1989-), a father who freed his daughter Myrna Hanna (kidnapped 10 mo. earlier) from her Muslim husband Mohammad Hefnawy's home after she was forced to convert; after beating them they try to arrest their wives until neighbors' protests cause them to back off. On Oct. 3 the British Telegraph reveals that Iranian pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has Jewish roots, his family having been converted to Islam after his birth, and originally having the Jewish name Sabourjian ('cloth weaver'); his denial of the Holocaust is therefore an attempt to coverup his roots - either that or he's a Jewish mole planted to give Israel an excuse to nuke it? On Oct. 3-4 the eve of the 8th anniv. of the U.S.-led action to oust the Taliban from power sees a fierce weekend clash in E Afghanistan kill 100+ Taliban fighters plus 8 U.S. soldiers, becoming NATO's biggest loss of life since 10 French troops were killed in an ambush in Aug. 2008, causing a Taliban spokesman on Oct. 6 to utter the non-surprising soundbyte 'We are prepared for a long fight'. On Oct. 5 (noon) a Tehrik-i-Taliban suicide bomber dressed as a Frontier Constabulary paramilitary soldier asks to use the bathroom then detonates at an office of the U.N. World Food Program in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing five, becoming their first successful attack in Islamabad since June 6, and the first anti-Western attack in Pakistan since June 9, becoming the start of a Taliban guerilla war on Pakistan (ends ?), with the Taliban linking up with al-Qaida and other militant Muslim groups to come in for the kill and get their hands on Pakistan and its nukes during the whimpy wishy-washy Obama regime, making many reflect on the nightmare film 'The Manchurian Candidate' about a planted U.S. president who works for the enemy?; on Oct. 5 Muhammad Aqeel (AKA Dr. Usman), the only militant surviving the attack turns out to be the leader, who led an attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Mar., causing the press to reveal that the Pakistani police had warned the military that he was planning the attack back in July. On Oct. 5 David Letterman surprises his late-night talk show audience by revealing that he was blackmailed for $2M over his sexual affairs with subordinate employees by CBS '48 Hours' producer Joe Halderman (1958-), who was stung and caught. On Oct. 5 Brigitte, Germany's #1 women's mag. announces that starting next year it is dumping super-skinny prof. models for 'real women' in order to combat the unhealthy standard of beauty. On Oct. 6 Russia announces that it's struck a $4B-$7B deal to sell its advanced S-400 anti-missile shield to Saudi Arabia, silencing objections by Israel that it was going to sell the less advanced S-300 system to Iran, making it harder for Israel to hit their nuke plants. On Oct. 6 the U.S. Supreme Court begins its new term, with the debut of the first Latino justice, Sonia Sotomayor. On Oct. 6 Egypt's top Muslim cleric Sheikh Mohammed Tantawi announces that he's going to ban women from wearing the traditional head-to-toe niqab, saying that it 'is a tradition, it has no connection with Islam'. On Oct. 6 Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel is arrested for inciting a 'religious war' in Jerusalem, then released with a warning to stay away for 30 days; on Oct. 7 the Israel govt. announces that it is considering banning his Islamic Movement. On Oct. 6 Algerian Muslim Hadron Collider physicist Adlene Hicheur (1977-) of CERN is arrested after being caught offering to work for al-Qaida in N Africa; he also worked at physics labs in the U.K. and U.S. On Oct. 8 (8:40 a.m. local time) a bomb outside the Indian embassy in C Kabul kills 17 and wounds 76 (2nd embassy suicide attack in 16 mo.), showing that the 8-year war against the Taliban is being lost. On Oct. (11 a.m. local time) a 30-ft.-diam. asteroid explodes over an island region of Indonesia, becoming the biggest since the Marshall Islands fireball on Feb. 1, 1994On Oct. 9 (4:30 a.m. ET) NASA crashes the LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observing and Sensing Satellite) into the Moon at 5.6K mph to blast a huge hole in search of hidden water, creating a 30-mi.-high plume observable from Earth with a 10-in. telescope; too bad, no plume was seen. On Oct. 9 (4 a.m. EST) (First Dog Bo's birthday) Barack Obama is unanimously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize by the Norwegian Nobel Commmittee, surprising the audience in Oslo because he was virtually unknown three years earlier and the Feb. 1 deadline for nominations was less than two weeks after he took office; the committee praises him for calling for a nuclear weapon-free world in Prague in Apr., and for his 'extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples' and for creating a 'new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the U.N. and other internat. institutions can play'; being the first black U.S. pres. is not mentioned; the 3rd U.S. pres. to win after Woodrow Wilson in 1919 and Theodore Roosevelt in 1906; the first to win for what he is going to do, not done?; really a slap on the G.W. Bush admin?; Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid mocks the award, citing Obama's troop hike in Afghanistan, saying he should have been given the 'Nobel violence prize'; Am. conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh calls the Nobel win worse than the loss of the Olympics, saying that the Nobel Committee 'suicide-bombed itself' over Obama; on Oct. 8 Obama snubbed the Dalai Lama during his first visit in 18 years to avoid upsetting China; meanwhile Iranian Rev. Guards official Mojtaba Zolnour tells the press that 'Even if one American or Zionist missile hits our country, Iranian missiles will blow up the heart of Israel'; meanwhile a Taliban suicide car bomber in Peshawar, Pakistan kills 49. On Oct. 9 a Uruguayan CASA212 U.N. peacekeeper surveillance plan crashes into a mountain in Haiti W of Fonds-Verrettes near the Dominican Repub. border, killing all 11 military personnel aboard. On Oct. 10 Poland signs the 2007 Lisbon Treaty, leaving the Czech Repub. as the only one of 27 EU nations that hasn't done it yet; on ? Czech. pres. Vaclav Klaus finally signs it. On Oct. 10 Iran announces it has given death sentences to two election protesters, identified only as A.P. and N.A. On Oct. 10 Pres. Obama appears at the Human Rights Campaign dinner and renews his pledge to end the military's ban on openly gay service members, with the soundbyte 'You will see a time in which we as a nation finally recognize relationships between two men or two women as just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and a woman'; on Oct. 11 the Nat. Equality March sees tens of thousands of gay activists march in Washington, D.C., calling for across-the-board federal protection. On Oct. 10 North Korea fires five short-range missiles off its E coast and declares a 'no sail' zone until Oct. 20. On Oct. 10 (evening) self-described youthful anarchists dressed in black with plastic masks tear up the town of Poitiers, France. On Oct. 10-11 the Taliban sieges the Pakistan army HQ ('the Pakistan Pentagon') in Rawalpindi, Pakistan for 22 hours before being stopped after killing three of 42 hostages; 20 total are killed, incl. nine militants. On Oct. 11 a string of car bombings kill 19 in Iraq's Anbar Province that was once the scene of intense fighting and is now supposed to be a showcase for restored peace. On Oct. 11 after declaring it so poorly-run as to be 'unsustainable', Mexican pres. Felipe Calderon makes good on his campaign promises and sends 1K federales in riot gear to occupy the office of the state-owned electricity monopoly Luz y Fuerza del Centro in an effort to clean up its union featherbedding and corruption; its 44K employees and 22K pensioners gobbled $3B a year while losing 30% of its power output to illegal connections and technical failures; no surprise, pissed-off union members take to the streets on Oct. 15. On Oct. 12 a 13-y.-o. Taliban suicide bomber attack on a military convoy in Shangla district near the Swat Valley kills 41 near where the army supposedly flushed the Taliban out after a fierce offensive; on Oct. 15 more brazen Taliban attacks all over Pakistan kill 39, incl. the Federal Investigation Agency in Lahore; on Oct. 16 yet another Allah Akbar Taliban suicide bomber kills 12 in Peshawar, Pakistan, while Pakistani forces pound a Taliban stronghold in South Waziristan in a new major offensive. On Oct. 12 U.S. state secy. Hillary Clinton urges Northern Ireland to push forward with its peace process begun by her hubby Bill. On Oct. 12 the State of Colo. becomes the first U.S. state to lower its minimum wage, from $7.28 to $7.24, one cent lower than the federal minimum wage. On Oct. 13 the U.S. Senate Finance Committee approves the $829B health care reform bill by 14-9, with Olympia Snow of Maine being the only Repub. who voted yes, saying she just wants it to go on through the system but won't necessarily vote for it later. On Oct. 13 thousands of immigrants hold a rally in Washington, D.C. to call for comprehensive immigration reform as U.S. Rep. (D-Ill.) Luis V. Gutierrez introduces a new immigration bill in the House; no mention of TLW's Megamerge Dissolution Solution yet. On Oct. 13 Pres. Obama calls on Congress to approve a $250 1-time payment to the elderly after the negative inflation rate causes them to not get a cost of living increase in their Social Security checks. On Oct. 13 the Pentagon announces that it has met all of its annual recruiting goals for the first time since the establishment of the all-volunteer force in 1973 as the bad economy causes youth to sign up by the hundreds of thousands even as they know they will go to war. On Oct. 13 17-y-o. Rifqa Bary, an Am. Muslim convert to Christianity is ordered by Fla. judge Daniel Dawson to return to her home state of Ohio despite her pleas that her Muslim family wants to kill her for insulting Islam by her conversion. On Oct. 13 Dutch right-wing MP Geert Wilderts (1963-) defeats a decision by U.K. home secy. Jacqui Smith to prevent him from visiting to show his new film Fitna, which calls the Quran a 'Fascist book', with the new PC word 'Islamaphobe' applied to him to justify stifling his right to freedom of thought and speech. On Oct. 13 Russian foreign minister Sergei Viktorovich Lavrov (1950-) tells the U.S. that further sanctions against poker chip Iran would be 'counterproductive', adding 'all efforts must be focused on supporting the negotiating process'; too bad, on Oct. 23 Iran rejects a U.N.-drafted deal to cut its nuclear fuel stockpile that could be (is?) used to make nukes. On Oct. 13 Pres. Obama picks Minn. policewoman Sharon Lubinski as the first openly gay U.S. marshal - Marshall Dildo? On Oct. 14 the Dow Jones Industrial Avg. tops 10K for the first time since Oct. 7, 2008; it hit a 12-year low of 6,547.05 on Mar. 9; meanwhile the Wall Street Journal announces that the major U.S. banks and financial firms are going to hand out $140B in pay this year, 20% from 2008. On Oct. 14 it is revealed that the Obama admin. cut funding for pro-democracy and human rights programs in Iran, reversing the Bush admin. program, buckling to Iran's leaders who criticized him for seeking to fund a 'velvet rev.' during the June pres. elections. On Oct. 14 jewelry thieves rob three stores in Baghdad in broad daylight, killing eight and wounding nine; at least they aren't terrorists? On Oct. 15 Islamic militants stage a string of attacks in the heart of Pakistan, incl. Lahore and Kohat, killing 31. On Oct. 15 leading British polar scientist Peter Wadham says that global warming will leave the Arctic Ocean ice-free during the summer within 20 years, hurting seals, polar bears et al. On Oct. 15 conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh is unceremoniously kicked out of a group trying to buy the St. Louis Rams after PC police incl. several black NFL players and owners force him out, and racist quotes are falsely attributed to him, stinking themselves up more than him? On Oct. 15 the Balloon Boy Hoax sees a home project to build a helium-filled weather balloon in Ft. Collins, Colo. go bad when a 6-y.-o. Falcon Heene (2003-) allegedly gets in it and untethers it when unattended, and the balloon sails across across Colo., causing a military alert and massive law enforcement involvement while viewers across the state watch on preempted TV with bated breath until it lands 50 mi. away in a field with no one aboard, after which a massive search turns up nothing until he is found hiding in a box in his attic, afraid he's in trouble; meanwhile the story becomes world news, and spreads like lightning on the Internet; too bad, after which the cover story that his mad scientist daddy Richard Heene yelled at him for trying to get in and he hid, after which daddy released it with 20-ft. tethers which broke, and the other sons told he he had climbed in, the real story that it was a pre-planned hoax staged by publicity-hound daddy to get his own reality TV show gets him criminal charges, along with former actress mommy Mayumi Heene; comedian Joy Behar calls it a floating Jiffy Pop bag, and says the kid will be grounded until he's 18; on Oct. 23 Mayumi admits in affidavit that she and Richard planned it for two weeks as a stunt; even if he ends up behind bars for awhile, Richard Heene is going to end up rich because he got maybe $100M worth of publicity for free already, he's a self-marketing genius, watch for his bestselling book, true life movie, reality TV show, video game line, etc.? On Oct. 15 Bulgarian politician Irina Georgieva Bokova (1952-) becomes the first woman dir. of UNESCO (until ?). On Oct. Pres. Obama visits a charter school in New Orleans, La., where a 4th grade black boy Tyren Scott 'Why do people hate you? And why aren't they supposed to love you, if God is love?', to which he replies 'First of all, I did get elected president, so not everybody hates me; I got a whole lot of votes. A lot of it is what's called politics, where once one party wins, the other party feels like they've got to poke you a little bit to keep you on your toes. So you shouldn't take it too seriously.' On Oct. 16 Bosnia, Lebanon, Gabon, Brazil and Nigeria are elected to the U.N. Security Council for 2-year terms starting next Jan. On Oct. 16 an Allah Akbar suicide bomber hides in a Sunni congregation in a mosque in Tal Afar N Iraq, then sprays them with gunfire and detonates, wounding 95 and killing 15+, incl. the imam, who had spoken out against al-Qaida. On Oct. 16 Zimbabwe PM Morgan Tsvangirai suddenly abandons shared rule with pres. Robert Mugabe, citing 'persecution' of a top aide. On Oct. 18 a Sunni Jundallah (Soldiers of Allah) suicide bomber kills 42, incl. five senior cmdrs. of the Iranian Rev. Guard in the Sistan-Baluchestran Province in the Pishin District near the Pakistani border with Iran, pissing off Imadinnajacket, who threatens retaliation against Britain and the U.S. On Oct. 19 hoaxers one-up Balloon Boy by an email claim that the Chamber of Commerce has announced that it's throwing its support behind climate change legislation in the U.S. Senate, which causes several major media orgs. to fall for it, incl. CNBC. On Oct. 20 Taliban suicide bombers rock the Internat. Islamic U. in Islamabad twice, killing two and wounding 20; meanwhile the 4th day of the Pakistani offensive in South Waziristan brings the dead Taliban toll to almost 80. On Oct. 20 the Vatican surprises Anglicans by announcing plans to make it easier to convert, especially those who don't like female and gay bishops, permitting married hetero priests and other distinctive Anglican traditions; this despite 400 years of Anglicans calling the pope the Antichrist and his church the Whore of Babylon. On Oct. 20 a Muslim protester verbally assaults British Middle East envoy Tony Blair in a mosque in Hebron on the West Bank, saying 'You are a terrorist', telling the guards who were cuffing him, 'He is not welcome in the land of Palestine'. On Oct. 21 U.S. federal authorities charge Syrian-Am. Tarek Mehanna (1982-) of Sudbury, Mass. with conspiring with two others to carry out an Islamic holy war, incl. killing politicians, U.S. troops in Iraq, and shoppers in malls - and the reason they let masses of non-secular Muslims immigrate to the U.S. is? On Oct. 21 Northwestern Airlines Flight 188 (Airbus A320) en route from San Diego speeds 150 mi. past its destination of Minneapolis, Minn., causing military jets to scramble as a terrorist hijacking is suspected; after the pilots Timothy B. Cheney (1956-) and Richard I. Cole (1955-) finally contact the authorities and land, it is found out that they were illegally using laptops and got so engrossed that they lost track of time, and their pilot's licenses are revoked. On Oct. 21-22 the U.S. Justice Dept. arrests 303 members of the ruthless La Familia Michoacana drug trafficking cartel (known for beheading its enemies) in 19 states in the last two days under 4-y.-o. Project Coronado, becoming the largest arrest of members of a Mexican drug cartel; too bad, no kingpins, only grunts. On Oct. 22 Ethiopia appeals for 159K tons of emergency aid to feed 6.2M hungry people. On Oct. 22 former U.S. vice-pres. Dick Cheney says that Pres. Obama is 'dithering while America's armed forces are in danger' in Afghanistan, causing the White House to fire back 'The vice-president was for seven years not focused on Afghanistan. Ever more curious, given the fact than increase in troops sat on desks in this White House, including the vice-presidents for more than 8 mo., a resource request filled by Pres. Obama in March'; meanwhile on Nov. 3 the EU endorses a 'step change' in policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan, backing Obama's military plans. On Oct. 22 the over 100 FBI agents raid the tiny town of Kinsman, Ill. (pop. 109) and surround a Muslim halal butcher shop, but do not reveal why for a week, then claim they were plotting to kill Danish anti-Muhammad cartoonist Kurt Westgaard, calling it the Mickey Mouse Project. On Oct. 22 U.S. pay czar Kenneth Feinberg slashes compensation for top earners at seven bailed-out cos. for Nov.-Dec. by 50%, causing them to complain that they can't attract top talent - I'm available cheap? On Oct. 22 yet another Taliban suicide bomber kills eight outside the key Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in Kamra (45 mi. NW of Islamabad); an official denies that the facility contains nukes; earlier in Islamabad militants shoot and kill Brig. Gen. Ahmed Moinuddin, deputy comdr. of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Sudan. On Oct. 22 the Minn. Supreme Court in a split decision rules that bong water is a drug, and possession of 25g or more can be prosecuted as a 1st degree drug felony. On Oct. 22 Islamic militants shell the airport in Mogadishu, Somalia, as pres. Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed boards a plane, sparking battles that kill 24 as return fire hits residential areas and a market. On Oct. 23 a fire begins in the Caribbean Gulf Refinery in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. On Oct. 24 U.S. pres. Barack Obama declares the swine flu a nat. emergency, allowing emergency rooms to be moved offsite to protect non-infected patients. On Oct. 24 the Pakistani army captures the Taliban stronghold of Kotkai, home of Taliban leader Zulfiqar 'Hakimullah' Mehsud (1981-). On Oct. 25 Iran sentences five anti-govt. protesters to death; four of them are members of the Iran Monarchy Committee, who were arrested before the elections. On Oct. 25 two suicide car bombs detonate in front of the Iraq Justice Ministry and another govt. bldg. in Baghdad, killing 155 and wounding 520, becoming the worst terrorist attack in two years (summer 2007); blast walls had been removed from the road a few weeks earlier; on Oct. 28 dozen of Iraqi security officials are arrested for collusion with the bombers - once the U.S. completely pulls out, total civil war? On Oct. 25 Jeffry M. Picower (b. 1942), business partner of Bernie Madoff who is accused of raking in $7B from his Ponzi scheme is found dead in his mansion swimming pool in Palm Beach, Fla. On Oct. 25 masked Palestianian protesters hurl stones and plastic chairs at Israeli riot police outside the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, holing-up in the mosque for several hours, after which 18 are arrested. On Oct. 25-27 the Showdown in Chicago sees 5K union members and activists protest against the annual meeting of the Am. Bankers' Assoc. On Oct. 26 U.N. inspectors make their first inspection of an Iranian nuclear site in a mountain S of Tehran. On Oct. 26 a U.S. heli crash in W Afghanistan kills seven U.S. troops and three U.S. civilians, and injures 12 Americans and 14 Afghans; meanwhile two U.S. helis collide in flight, killing four and wounding two, all going to make Oct. the deadliest mo. for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, with 55, and 281 for the year. On Oct. 27 (8 a.m.) the prototype $450M NASA Ares I-X (Space Shuttle replacement), designed for the Constellation program that will return astronauts to the Moon by 2020 is launched less than a week after a blue-ribbon panel released its final report bringing the future of the human spaceflight program into question, and recommending that it be privatized; a large dent near the base is found on the rocket after it splashes into the Atlantic Ocean. On Oct. 27 a court in Paris fines the French branch of the Church of Scientology 600K euros after finding it guilty of fraud, but doesn't order the org. kicked out of France because of a loophole in the law, although the next time they will be. On Oct. 27 Chinese-Mexican businessman Zhenli Ye Gon is arrested after police find $205M in cash in his Mexico City mansion, after which he confesses that he sold tons of a chemical used to make meth.; meanwhile U.S. defense secy. Robert Gates welcomes a top Chinese gen. to the Pentagon, calling for lasting dialogue after years of 'on-again, off-again' talks. On Oct. 27 the Obama admin. unveils his landmark systemic risk bill, incl. a measure for more govt. scrutiny of hedge funds; House Financial Services chmn. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) unveils a plan to force large banks and financial firms to contribute to a 'financial superfund' to pay for future bailouts instead of the taxpayers; meanwhile Sen. Dems. introduce a health care reform bill that incl. the govt.-run insurance option, despite lack of support by some Dems. incl. Sen. Joe Lieberman, who says he may join a GOP filibuster. On Oct. 27 Bill and Melinda Gates appeal to U.S. govt. officials to continue funding global health initiatives and commit to half the number of child deaths worldwide by 2025, saying that the $11.9B they have donated is 'tiny' in comparison to what is needed; meanwhile on Oct. 27 Pres. Obama announces $3.4B in stimulus funding to smart grid projects aimed at promoting green power. On Oct. 27 the New York Times reports the Ahmed Wali Karzai, brother of Afghan pres. Hamid Karzai has been on the CIA payroll for the last eight years despite being involved in the opium trade, helping to recruit a paramilitary force for the CIA in and around Kandahar. On Oct. 27 U.N. human investigator Philip Alston warns the U.S. that its use of drones to carry out targeted executions may violate internat. law against aribitrary extrajudicial executions. On Oct. 27 a 15-y.-o. girl is gang-raped for two hours outside Richmond H.S. in Calif. after a homecoming dance by suspects aged 15-21, with up to 20 either taking part or watching and doing nothing to stop or report it; five are arrested. On Oct. 28 a car bomb detonates in the crowded market street of Peepal Mandi in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing 100, mostly women just hours after Hillary Clinton arrives and pledges a fresh start in strained relations, becoming the deadliest terrorist attack since the 2007 assassination of Benazir Bhutto; on Oct. 27 Hillary broke with Obama on his support of the hijacking of the U.N. by Muslims who seek to get a resolution passed against 'defamation of religion' (really, only theirs), saying 'An individual's ability to practice his or her religion has no bearing on others' freedom of speech'. On Oct. 28 (5 a.m.) Taliban militants kill six U.N. foreign staff in an attack on an internat. Bakhtar guest house in Kabul as part of their plan to disrupt Nov. 7 elections. On Oct. 28 radical Sunni leader Luqman Ameen Abdullah (b. 1956) is shot in a warehouse in Dearbon, Mich. after he holes up and resists arrest for illegal possession and sale of firearms; ten of his followers are also rounded up, after which it is revealed that he works for Ummah, a group of mostly Africa-Am. converts to Islam led by imprisoned former Black Panther H. Rap Brown (Hubert Gerold Brown), now known as Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (1943-), who want to set up a separatist Islamic State in the U.S. On Oct. 28 the U.N. votes 187-3 to denounce the 50-y.-o. U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, with only Israel and 21K-pop. Palau in the Pacific siding with the U.S. On Oct. 29 the govt. announces that the economy has grown for the first time in a year, with a 3.5% increase in GDP in the 3rd quarter; the White House announces that 650K jobs were crated or saved by $150B in stimulus funds. On Oct. 28-Nov. 4 the 2009 World Series (#105) sees the New York Yankees defeat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2; in game 1 (6-1) Phillies lefty pitcher Clifton Phifer 'Cliff' Lee (1978-) pitches the first complete WS game with 10+ strikeouts and no walks since Deacon Phillippe in game 1 of the 1903 WS, and first to do so without allowing an earned run. On Oct. 29 U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveils the 1,990-page Dem. health reform bill, which will cost $849B over 10 years and incl. a public option, allegedly cutting the defecit by $30B in the first 10 years. On Oct. 29 Hillary Clinton winds up her 3-day visit to Pakistan with a broadcast interview in front of a mainly female audience of several hundred, who task her about drone attacks; she surprises observers by asking why al-Qaida's leaders are being allowed to operate in the country, saying 'I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are, and couldn't get to them if they really wanted to'; too bad, despite $1.5B in aid, Pakistani leaders don't jump to endorse a friendship or alliance in the war on terror with the U.S., causing Clinton to say 'We're not getting through'. On Oct. 29 retired British couple Paul and Rachel Chandler, who disappeared on their 38-ft. yacht on Oc. 23 phone to their relatives, telling them that Somalian pirates are holding them for a $3M ransom. On Oct. 30 Columbia and the U.S. sign a military cooperation deal increasing U.S. access to seven Colombian military bases to help with anti-drug and counter-insurgency operations. On Oct. 30 top Taliban leader Mullah Brader Akhund delivers a message to Pres. Obama that U.S. attempts to lure Taliban fighters with money is 'an old weapon that has already failed', adding 'This war will come to an end when all invaders leave our country and an Islamic government based on the aspirations of our people is formed in the country.' On Oct. 30 Pres. Obama signs the reauthorization of the 1990 U.S. Ryan White HIV/AIDS Act, named Am. hemophiliac Ryan Wayne White (1971-90), who got infected with HIV from a blood transfusion in 1984, and was heavily discriminated against. On Oct. 30 Pres. Obama announces the end of a 22-year ban (since 1987) on travel to the U.S. by people with HIV. On Oct. 30 the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) unanimously approves the use of non-Latin characters in Internet addresses beginning on Nov. 16. On Oct. 30 Typhoon Mirinae hits Manilla, Philippines, killing 7+. On Oct. 30 Hillary Clinton says that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has offered 'unprecedented' concessions on West Bank settlement construction, but Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas rejects the offer since it excludes 3K housing units under construction and excludes East Jerusalem; the U.S. quietly drops its call for a settlement freeze while calling them illegal; on Nov. 4 after meeting with Egyptian pres. Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, she adds that the settlements are not legitimate, but she wants to get talks going to achieve a freeze. On Oct. 30 Calif. gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says that the encoded phrase 'fuck you' in the initial letters of a line in one of his veto messages was 'a wild coincidence.' On Oct. 30 (night) a U.S. Coast Guard airplane on a rescue mission collides in midair with a U.S. Marine heli near San Clemente Island off San Diego, Calif., killing nine. On Oct. 30 the U.S. Nat. Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center is officially opened by U.S. homeland security secy. Janet Napolitano; it will serve as the central repository of cyber-protection efforts for the civilian side of the federal govt. and its private sector partners.

The month when U.S. home military bases were no longer safe from American Muslims? On Nov. 1 the Taliban blows up a girls school in Kari Gar in the Khyber tribal district, wounding four in neighboring homes; on Nov. 2 yet another Taliban attack in Pakistan close to the army HQ in Rawalpindi by a motorbike bomber in a Nat. Branch bank kills 34 and injures several others. On Nov. 2 Ford Motor Co. announces that it earned a $997M profit in the 3rd quarter, paying off for not accepting govt. bailout funds. On Nov. 2-3 Hillary Clinton attends a forum with Arab leaders in Morocco, praising it as a model for dem. reform, while they diss the U.S. for backdown on the settlement freeze in Israel. On Nov. 3 La. justice of the peace Keith Bardell resigns after he is caught refusing to marry interracial couple Beth Humphrey (white) and Terence McKay (black), and the nat. PC police put on the screws. On Nov. 3 midterm U.S. elections are a V for the Repubs., who see gov. Robert F. McDonnell elected in Va., ending a decade of Dem. advances in the state; former U.S. atty. Chris Christie defeats Dem. gov. Jon S. Corzine in N.J. despite being outspent 3-1; Calif. Dem. rep. John Garamendi (1945-) is elected, immediately hiking to Washington, D.C. to help pass Obama's health care reform bill, giving the Dems. 257 House seats vs. 177 for the Repubs.; meanwhile voters in Maine overturn a same-sex marriage law by 53%-47%, making it not the first state where it was approved by popular vote rather than legislatures and judges like in Conn., Iowa, Mass., N.H, and Vt.; 30 other states have rejected it by popular vote; Dominican-born William Lantigua is elected as the first Latino mayor of Mass. in Lawrence ('Immigrant City'), with 53% of the vote, defeating David C. Abdoo; an anti-immigrant measure in Denver, Colo. to force police to automatically impound cars of unlicensed drivers is rejected by 70%. On Nov. 3 an Afghan policemen shoots and kills five British soldiers in Helmand province, then escapes, proving that the Taliban has infiltrated the police force. On Nov. 3 ABC-TV begins airing the V sci-fi TV series, a refilming of the 1983 Kenneth Johnson series about disguised reptilian aliens who come to Earth and try to seduce them into being eaten by promising universal health and happiness, causing viewers to see a parallel with Pres. Obama and his universal health care program. On Nov. 4 the 30th anniv. of the U.S. embassy takeover in Iran sees supreme assahollah Ali Khamenei diss Pres. Obama's efforts at reconciliation while the govt. fights anti-govt. protesters in Tehran, with the soundbyte 'The American government is a really arrogant power and the Iranian nation will not be deceived with its apparent reconciliatory behavior'. On Nov. 4 an Italian judge Oscar Magi sentences 23 Americans to up to eight years in prison and 1M euro fines for the abduction and torture of Egyptian-born Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr in a symbolic condemnation of the CIA 'extraordinary rendition' flights, which captured terrorism suspects in one country them flew them to another where they could use harsher interrogation techniques; the U.S. tells Magi to take a hike and won't permit extradition. On Nov. 4 U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Amy C. Tirador (b. 1980) of Albany, N.Y. (an interrogator) is shot in the back of the head and murdered in Kirkush, Iraq in a secure area of the base; the govt. covers it up by calling it a 'non-combat related incident'. On Nov. 4 22-y.-o. Am.-born Muslim Abdul Walid Hamid (1987-) tears a crucifix from a shopper's neck at Stoneridge Shopping Center in Pleasanton, Calif. and shouts 'Allah is power. Islam is great'; meanwhile on Nov. 3 hardcore Muslim extremist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan goes to Stan's Shooting Range in Florence, Tex. for target practice for his big upcoming Yankee infidel safari. The first radical Islamic terrorist assault on U.S. soil since 9/11, and the U.S. govt. tries to portray it as pre-post-traumatic stress syndrome? On Nov. 5 (Thur.) after visiting a 7-Eleven store wearing a traditional South Asian chalwar camise popular with al-Qaida in Pakistan and Afghanistan, devout Muslim Allah-Akbar-shouting U.S. Army psychiatrist (formerly working at Walter Reed Army Hospital counseling returnees from Iraq and Afghanistan) Nidal Malik Hasan (1970-) (son of immigrants from Palestine, who was promoted to maj. from col. despite a poor performance review, and who closed his safety deposit box and handed out Qurans ahead of time) stages the Ft. Hood Massacre, pulling out two pistols and shooting 40+ times for 10 min., killing 13 unarmed fellow soldiers and wounding 30 at the Soldier Readiness Center at Ft. Hood, Tex., biggest military base in the world (53K soldiers) after being selected for deployment to Afghanistan before he is wounded and captured, becoming the worst shooting on a U.S. military base until ?; white female police officer Kimberly Denise 'Kim' Munley (1974-) becomes an instant first U.S. military heroine as she is claimed to take him down with several shots, paralyzing him from the chest down and putting him into a coma, until it is revealed that Hasan took her down and seiously wounded her, and that it was her black male partner St. Mark Todd (1967-) who ended Hasan's rampage; the press and Pres. Obama downplay if not attempt to coverup the jihadist angle, seeking to portray him as a victim of discrimination and even 'pre-post-traumatic stress syndrome', with Obama uttering the soundbyte that 'we cannot fully know' why Hasan did it, even after it is revealed that he worshipped at the Dar al-Hijra Mosque in Great Falls, Va. of radical pro-al-Qaida anti-U.S. 'skirt-chasing mullah' imam Anwar al-Awlaki (1971-) (who fled to exile in Yemen) at the same time as two of the 9/11 terrorists, and exchanged emails with him in 2008-9, and later praises him and says 'Fighting against the U.S. army is an Islamic duty today', and that U.S. intel agencies had been aware for months that he tried to electronically contact al-Qaida (hence the govt. is trying to keep them from being punished?); 18 mo. ago he warned senior Army physicians that the military should allow Muslim U.S. soldiers like him to be released as conscientious objectors instead of being sent to kill other Muslims to avoid 'adverse events', and says 'We love death more than you love life'; he gave a Power Point slide show titled 'The Koranic World View as it Relates to Muslims in the U.S. Military', announcing his intentions of jihad in advance; he was recently spotted at the Starz strip club; his business card contains the legend SoA(SWT) (Soldier or Sword of Allah, Sharia Will Triumph); on May 20 he posted on the Internet the message: 'Scholars have paralleled (a U.S. soldier's falling on a grenade to save surrounding troops) to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers', and repeatedly asked his superiors to criminally prosecute U.S. soldiers he claimed had confessed to 'war crimes' during his psychiatric counseling; after the massacre, al-Awlaki comments 'Nidal Hasan is a hero. He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people... The U.S. is leading the war against terrorism which in reality is a war against Islam'; on Nov. 8 U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George William Casey Jr. (1948-) stinks himself up with the soundbyte 'What happened at Ft. Hood was a tragedy, but I believe it would be an even greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty here', then later says he doen't rule out the possibility of terrorism, and calls for a 'unified inquiry' into the Army's inability to recognize the warning signs of ticking time bomb Muslim jihadists in their ranks, and also calls it for it to be expanded 'department-wide'; the U.S. Senate holds its first public hearing on the shooting on Nov. 19; Obama becomes the first U.S. pres. to be responsible for a jihadist attack on U.S. soil by his lax policy on Islam?; a clear warning of the dangers of allowing mass Muslim immigration?; there are more than 13K Muslims serving in the U.S. armed forces; on Nov. 8 Jewish U.S. Sen. (D-N.H.) Joe Lieberman, chmn. of the Senate Homeland Security committee suggests that the Ft. Hood massacre was an act of 'islamist extremism', drawing the PC police on him; if he had been outed as gay instead of radical Muslim he would have been removed from the military long before he could do it?; on Nov. 17 Pres. Obama asks Congress to slow investigation of the shootings, sparking denunciations from Repubs., who push to speed it up, and on Nov. 22 U.S. Rep. (R-Tex.) John Carter introduces legislation to declare that the soldiers at Ft. Hood were killed 'in a combat zone as the result of an act of an enemy of the U.S.' On Nov. 5 the U.S. Senate blocks a proposal by Sen. (R-La.) (2005-) David Bruce Vitter (1961-) to ask people on census forms whether they are U.S. citizens so that illegal immigrants can't skew the statistics used for apportionment of congressional seats; critics say that 400M of 600M forms have already been printed, and that it would require a constitutional amendment, which doesn't stop them from voting against it now. On Nov. 5 (4 a.m. local time) a car bomb explodes outside a military barracks in Burgos, Spain, injuring 60+ police officers, their families and neighbors. On Nov. 6 the U.S. unemployment rate is announced as 10.2%, the highest since 1983; the real rate is more like 17.5%; 22%? On Nov. 6 Italian interior minister Roberto Maroni says that Italy is susceptible to terror attacks by the al-Qaida network, and that terror cells have 'authorization' to carry out attacks there who are not part of it but allied to it. On Nov. 6 fired engineer Jason Rodriguez (1969-) gets revenge at his old firm, killing one and wounding five before being arrested, saying 'They left me to rot'. On Nov. 7 (Sat.) (11 p.m.) after the AMA and AARP announce their support, and an amendment by Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) to bar federal funding for most abortions by 240-194 (incl. 176 Repubs. and 64 Dems.) passes, the U.S. House passes the Obama health care reform bill by 220-215; one of the loudest cheers ever heard in the chamber greets the deciding vote of Maxine Waters (D-Calif.); it requires virtually all Americans to obtain health insurance and creates a govt.-run health insurance plan; 39 Dems. vote against it, and only repub. Joseph Cao of La. votes for it; alternative Repub. plan is rejected by 176-258, with only Repub. Timothy Johnson of Ill. voting against it. On Nov. 7 (the Taliban sets up an ambush for U.S. and Afghan troops in Zabul Province in E Afghanistan in 'F.O.B. Nowhere', but they outsmart them, killing 17-20 Taliban instead with no losses of their own. On Nov. 8 Hurricane Ida triggers floods and mudslides in El Salvador, killing 124, then heads toward the U.S. over the Gulf of Mexico on Nov. 9. On Nov. 8 the severed head of kidnapped school principal Gabriel Canizares is found in a bag at a gas station on Jolo Island in the Philippines 22 days after he was abducted, causing the Philippine govt. to vow revenge against al-Qaida-linked Islamic militants - if it had been in the U.S. the govt. would have tried to excuse their behavior with psychobabble? On Nov. 8 the Dalai Lama arrives in the Buddhist monastery town of Tawang in N India near the Tibetan border for a a 5-day visit despite Chinese govt. disapproval. On Nov. 8 a suicide bomber in Adazai, a suburb of Peshawar, Pakistan kills 12, incl. anti-Taliban mayor Abdul Malik. On Nov. 9 the 20th anniv. of the fall of the Berlin Wall in Berlin is snubbed by Pres. Obama, becoming 'the most telling non-event of his presidency' according to Nat. Review ed. Rich Lowry; Angela Merkel and Mikhail Gorbachev cross the path of the Wall together to shouts of 'Gorby, Gorgy'; too bad, when it fell, the Communism on the East German side was replaced by naked capitalism not socialism, causing catastrophe, resulting in a generation of unhappy people? On Nov. 9 NATO and Afghan officials claim to have killed 130+ Taliban fighters in N Afghanistan, incl. eight cmdrs. during a 5-day operation. On Nov. 9 a suicide bomber in an auto-rickwhaw kills three in Peshawar, Pakistan, while Islamist militants kill four soldiers in South Waziristan. On Nov. 9 Iran strikes again, charging three American hikers, Shane Bauer (b. 1982), Sarah Shourd (b. 1979), and Josh Fattal (b. 1982) who strayed over the border with N Iraq at the end of July with espionage. On Nov. 9 Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket gives a speech at a meeting of the Org. of the Islamic Conference in Turkey, calling for a NWO, claiming that capitalism is dead, and calling Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan his 'friend'. On Nov. 9 the Danish People's Party begins offering a 100K kroner incentive payment to 'anti-social' foreigners who leave Denmark, mainly fundamentalist Muslims. On Nov. 9 fighting in N Yemen by Shiite Houthi rebels and Saudi border guards erupts, spilling into Saudi Arabia, causing 240 villages to be evacuted and 50 schools to be closed; the Sunni-Shiite war could eventually drag the U.S. and Russia into war? On Nov. 9 10-y.-o. Will Phillips appears on CNN with his father Jay to explain that he will not say the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance again until gays and lesbians are given full rights like the pledge says, 'liberty and justice for all'. On Nov. 9 a court in Saudi Arabia sentences Lebanese TV journalist Ali Sibat to death for witchcraft for making predictions on TV after he is arrested last year on pilgrimage (hajj). On Nov. 10 Beltway Sniper John Allen Muhammad is executed after the Supreme Court clears the way. On Nov. 10 the North and South Korean navies exchange gunfire, becoming the first time in seven years. On Nov. 10 a car bomber outside a crowded market in Charsadda, 25 mi. N of Peshawar in NW Pakistan kills 20. On Nov. 10 the U.S. govt. announces that it will start using the USAF to combat drug trafficking at the U.S.-Mexico border. On Nov. 10 Pres. Obama gives a speech at Ft. Hood in memory of the victims of Maj. Nidal Hasan, with the soundbyte 'No faith justifies these murderous and craven acts, no just and loving God looks upon them with favor', concluding 'The killer will be met with justice in this world and the next' - guess he never read the Quran? On Nov. 10 a 5-day conference sponsored by the Vatican on the possibility of extraterrestrial life ends - their missionaries are already learning alien talk so they can move on in? On Nov. 10 Iranian physician Ramin Pouranarjani (b. 1983) dies in the Kahrizak Prison near Tehran after going public with reports of torture of protesters; the govt. takes days to acknowledge his death, and denies that they did it. On Nov. 11 anti-immigrant CNN anchor Lou Dobbs resigns after a massive campaign by pro-immigrant groups. On Nov. 11-22 the Second Continental Congress in Chicago, Ill. discusses the trampling of the U.S. Constitution by the Obama admin. and its unprecedented expansion of federal govt. power. On Nov. 12 Human Rights Watch releases a report accusing China of operating a network of secret 'black prisons' in Beijing; the govt. denies it. On Nov. 12 the U.S. govt. begins seizing $500M in assets (incl. four mosques) of the nonprofit Muslim Alavi Foundation, claiming that it's a front for the Iranian govt. On Nov. 12 French pres. Nicolas Sarkozy gives a speech at the Elysee Palace, saying that France is on the verge of losing its soul because of immigration of radical fundamentalist Muslims. On Nov. 13 (6:30 a.m. local time) a suicide car bomber in the Inter-Services Intelligence HQ in Peshawar, Pakistan kills seven and injures 35. On Nov. 13 (Friday the 13th) after extensive lobbying by the ACLU, the Obama admin. announces their decision to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others in a New York City civil court, which House Repub. leader John Boehner of Ohio calls 'irresponsible', and an attempt at 'treating terrorism as a law enforcement issue', former Bush admin. atty. John Yoo says the trail would be an 'intelligence bonanza' for the enemies of hte U.S., N.Y. Dem. gov. David A. Paterson says 'This is not a decision that I would have made', former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani says this proves that Obama's soft on terrorism, Edwin Meese II calls a 'tragic mistake', and former asst. FBI dir. James Kallstrom says 'adds dramatically to the possibility New York will be attacked, while U.S. Rep. (D-Ohio) Dennis Kucinich says that everybody, even Osama bin Laden should be given the same 'basic rights', and U.S. Sen. (D-N.J.) Robert Menendez says ditto; U.S. Rep. (R-Ariz.) Trent Franks says that the Dem. idea to house Gitmo detainees in Ill. shows the Dems. have at least come up with 'a jobs program'; whether by al-Qaida or lone wolves or by self-taught radicals who are looking at the Wahhabi sect and radicalizing themselves'; U.S. atty. gen. Eric Holder, who made the decision ignores Article 1 Section 8 Clause 10 of the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress power 'to define and punish piraces and felonies committed on the high sea, and offenses against the law of nations' via military commissions; since the West and the Quranic values of jihadists are totally incompatible, to grant U.S. constitutional rights to them could prove suicidal in the long run?; Obama did it to put the Bush admin. on trial instead of the terrorists?; he did it to show that he's Islam's friend and they should drop their jihad? On Nov. 13 Pres. Obama visits Tokyo, calling himself 'America's first Pacific president', and vowing that the U.S. 'will not be cowed by threats' from North Korea, which he says for decades 'has chosen a path of confrontation and provocation, including the pursuit of nuclear weapons'; continuing his new style, on Nov. 14 he bows to Japanese emperor Akihito; on Nov. 15 Obama becomes the first U.S. pres. in over 40 years to meet with the rulers of Burma (Myanmar). On Nov. 13 the British Holocaust (Stolen Art) Restitution Act is passed, giving nat. institutions in Britain and Scotland the power to return art stolen during the Nazi era. On Nov. 14 anti-terrorism expert Jean-Louis Bruguiere says that the Pakistani army ran training camps for the Muslim terrorist group Laskhar-e-Taiba with the acceptance of the CIA from 2001 until recently. On Nov. 14 a suicide car bomber at a police checkpoint on the outskirts of Peshawar, Pakistan kills 11, incl. four children, bringing the month's score to 300+. On Nov. 14 NATO and Afghan forces kill several insurgents in Shinand District in Herat, W Afghanistan, incl. an armed woman. On Nov. 16 (soundbyte day?) Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket utters the soundbyte that 'The Iranian nation's nuclear rights are not negotiable'; meanwhile on Nov. 15 Pres. Obama visits Shanghai, uttering the soundbyte 'I continue to believe that the greatest threat to the United States security are the terrorist networks like al Qaeda', along with the soundbyte 'We do not seek to contain China's rise. On the contrary, we welcome China as a strong and prosperous and successful member of the community of nations', adding that he sees no need to change the One-China Policy of regarding Taiwan as part of Red China; he gives his consent to a plan by the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Singapore to delay a binding agreement on climate change until next year; he also calls for greater Internet freedom in China, but in his Nov. 16 town hall meeting with 40 carefully-selected Beijing U. students, he refuses to discuss China's Internet censorship or meet with liberal leaders, many of whom were put under detention, which he doesn't object, then lets Chinese pres. Hu Jintao control a 30-min. news conference on Nov. 17, making the U.S. look like it's getting weak and whimpy; on Nov. 18 Obama tells the press in Beijing that the U.S. needs to contain its rising deficits (which have passed the $12T mark) in order to avoid 'double-dip recession', and urges Hu Jintao to allow the yuan to rise, but is ignored; on Jan. 19 Obama visits Seoul, and says that he's willing to help North Korea with its economy and end its 50-year isolation if they finally move toward nuclear disarmament; meanwhile on Nov. 16 PLO leader Ahmed Qurei says that the Obama admin. has reached an understanding with the Palestinian Authority that won't stop efforts to unilaterally create a Palestinian state via a U.N. Security Council resolution, and on Nov. 17 Israel approves the building of 900 new homes for Jews on the West Bank, pissing the Obama admin. off. On Nov. 15 Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi invites 200 women to a party in Rome during the global food summit, then tries to convert them to Islam. On Nov. 16 Shiite insurgents dressed in military uniforms kill at least 12 in a pre-dawn attack in the Sunni village of Zauba, W of Baghdad. On Nov. 16 Australian PM Kevin Rudd issues a historic apology to the 7K survivors of their program to ship 150K improverished British children to Australia for the past 3.5 cents. (until 1969), who were subjected to systematic abuse and neglect. On Nov. 16 internat. inspectors pub. a report, voicing suspicions that Iran has concealed nuclear facilities. On Nov. 16 (evening) Russian anti-racist activist Ivan Khutorskoi is shot and killed in front of his Moscow apt. bldg.; on Nov. 17 (night) Russian atty. Sergei Magnitsky (b. 1972) dies in Butyrskaya Prison in Moscow of heart failure; he had been jailed after uncovering evidence of police involvement in a $230M theft from the govt.; his Am. partner Jamison Firestone accuses the authorities of murdering him. On Nov. 16 the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force releases new recommendations against annual mammograms for women between the ages of 40-49, pissing off the Am. Cancer Society, Am. College of Obstetrics and Gynecology et al., whose physicians make a fortune, er, believe they need them anyway, after which the Obama admin. says that the new guidelines don't represent govt. policy. On Nov. 16-18 the 2009 U.N. Food Summit in Rome fails to secure substantial new funds to fight world hunger. On Nov. 17 the EU rejects calls for the Palestinian Authority to declare a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, saying that the conditions 'were not there yet'. On Nov. 17 Somali woman Halima Ibrahim Abdirahman (b. 1980) is stoned to death Muslim style after being convicted of adultery. On Nov. 17 the Obama admin.'s Recovery.gov Web site is revealed to have listed non-existent Congressional districts and jobs in order to explain its spending of the billions in stimulus funds, some of which is revealed to be payoffs to its political allies; the bad info. only affects 1% of the data. On Nov. 17 Australian Sen. Nick Xenophon calls the Church of Scientology a 'criminal organization' in the Australian federal parliament, citing letters detailing his claims and calling for an official investigation to end its tax-exampt status - no M:I sequels in Australia now? On Nov. 17 Mass. Dem. gov. (since 2007) Deval Patrick releases the New Americans Agenda for better integration of immigrants and refugees into the civic and economic life of the Mass. Commonwealth; too bad, it treats Muslims equally with non-Muslims? On Nov. 18 a U.S. official reports that Afghan mine minister Mohammad Ibrahim Adel accepted a $30M bribe in Dec. 2007 in Dubai from the Chinese Metallurgical Group Corp. to approve a $2.9B copper extraction province in Logar province. On Nov. 18 U.S. Sen. Dem. majority leader Harry M. Reid unveils their new $848B health care overhaul package, claiming it will reduce federal deficits by $130B over the next decade. On Nov. 18 U.S. atty gen. Eric Holder endures four hours of hostile questions from 9/11 family members in the U.S. Senate over his decision to try the 9/11 terrorists in a Manhattan civil court rather than a military one, bringing up Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's confession and desire to plead guilty and be executed, telling them it was his own decision not the terrorists', and not to fear them; Sen. Lindsey Graham asks Holder if he could cite one prior case where an enemy combatant like KSM was tried in a criminal court, and is given no response. On Nov. 18 U.S. secy. of state Hillary Clinton visits Afghanistan, telling Hamid Karazi to clean up Afghan corruption. On Nov. 19 the Luthuanian parliament begins investigating a suspected secret CIA prison set up in 2004 in Antaviliai, Lithuania in a riding stable. On Nov. 19 Afghan pres. Hamid Karzai is inaugurated amid a state of siege in Kabul, with no Western heads of state present, although Hillary Clinton did bring her 18M votes. On Nov. 19 a bill by U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) to subject the Federal Reserve to unprecedented scrutiny passes; meanwhile both the House and Senate show signs of getting fed-up with Obama's handling of the economy and continuing unemployment, with Repubs. on the Joint Economic Committee going after treasury secy. Tim Geither, wich Rep. Michael C. Burgess (R.-Tex) uttering the soundbyte 'I don't think that you should be fire, I thought you should have never been hired.' On Feb. 19 the U.S. Senate Committee on Ft. Hood, chaired by Joseph Liebermann (I-Conn.) begins public hearings, focusing on the perils of political correctness; on Feb. 20 it concludes that Maj. Nidal Hassan is a terrorist. On Nov. 19 a Fla. jury orders Philip Morrisa USA to pay $300M in damages to ex-smoker Cindy Naugle (1948-), who contracted emphysema. On Nov. 19 after ex-British PM Tony Blair's bid fails, Belgian Flemish PM (since 2008) Herman Achille Van Rompuy (1947-) becomes pres. of the EU (until), and British technocrat Catherine Margaret Ashton (1956-) becomes the foreign policy head (until ?); on Nov. 25 former PM (a Christian Dem.) Yves Letermine (1960-) replaces him as PM of Belgium (until ?). On Nov. 19 two Christian converts from Islam, Maryam Rustampoor (1982-) and Marzieh Amirizadah (1979-) are released by Iran from jail after 259 days after worldwide protests and petitions. On Nov. 20 a Taliban suicide bomber in Farah City in SW Afghanistan kills 17, icl. a senior police official, and wounds 29; meanwhile politician Abdul Rasul Sayyaf is targeted by a bomb under a bridge near Kabul, but escapes, although five of his bodyguards are killed; meanwhile a U.S. missile strike near Mir Ali in North Waziristan kills eight militants, a poll by Fritz Wendel finds that 65% of Americans are expecting a Muslim terrorist attack within 6 mo. On Nov. 20 Am. Roman Catholic cardinal Justin Rigali of Philly says that there's 'no way' that Catholic members of Congress can support the proposed U.S. Senate health care reform bill as long as it incl. a provision allowing govt. funding of insurance plans covering abortion, causing liberal activist Phil Attey of Church Outing.com to say that he will out gays in the priesthood to 'encourage' them to change their views on gay marriage, etc. On Nov. 21 a gas blast at the Heilongjiang Coal Mine in China kills 104 of 500; on Nov. 22 11 more are killed in a blast at a pit in Hunan; 3K were killed in mine disasters last year. On Nov. 21 a new U.S. law prohibits a co. from asking employees, a potential employee, or family members for a DNA sample. On Nov. 22 a report commissioned by the British Council claims that Pakistan will face a 'demographic disaster' if it doesn't address the needs of its youth, who are split between wanting Western democratic-style and Muslim Sharia govt., and who consider themselves Muslims first and Pakistanis second. On Nov. 22 an overloaded ferry sinks in bad weather off Riao Islands, Indonesia, killing 29 of 274. On Nov. 22 Pakistani security forces attack Taliban forces in the village of Shahukhel in NW Pakistan, bordering the Taliban stronghold in Orakzai, killing 22 militants. On Nov. 22 the 2009 Am. Music Awards shock the audience when gay Am. Idol runner-up performer Adam Mitchel Lambert (1982-) shoves dance team members' faces into his crotch, leads other around on dog leashes, and passionately smooches his male keyboard player. On Nov. 22-26 Iran stages an air defense exercise to prepare against a possible Israeli strike against its nuclear facilities. On Nov. 23 a group of 100 gunmen surround a group of 50 journalists and women, and abduct, rape, torture and kill (plus behead) 46 in Mindinao in S Philippines, incl. Genalyn Tiamzon-Mangudadatu to prevent her from filing her hubby Esmael (Ismael) Mangudadatu's nomination to run for provincial gov.; Philippine pres. advisor Jesus Dureza calls it 'a gruesome massacre of civilians unequaled in recent history'; on Nov. 25 prominent politician Andal Amputuan Jr., a member of pres. Gloria Arroyo's governing coalition is named as a prime suspect by Philippine security forces; Esmael files his papers on Nov. 27 On Nov. 24 the Voice of Am. announces that it's expanding its audience to Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua in order to counter Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, Rafael Correa, and Daniel Ortega. On Nov. 24 Honduran police arrest two Nicaraguans and two Hondurans along with several rifles, claiming they were plotting to assassinate pres. Roberto Michelette during the upcoming Nov. 29 election. On Nov. 24 Pres Obama holds his first official state dinner, hosting Indian PM Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur; 320 are RSVP'd. On Nov. 25 a double bombing in Karbala, Iraq injures 25 civilians gathering for the 4-day Shiite holiday of Eid al-Adha starting on Nov. 27. On Nov. 25 Pres. Obama's grandmother (mother of his father) Sarah Obama (1922-) goes to Mecca on Hajj as a guest of King Abdullah along with Obama's cousin Omran; during his campaign, she was portrayed as a Christian - like him? On Nov. 26 Internat. Atomic Energy Agency dir. gen. Mohamed ElBaradei says that Iran has stonewalled nuclear investigators, and that inquiry is at a 'dead end'; he resigns on Nov. 30 after 12 years. In Nov. Climategate starts when a hacker breaks into computers at the U. of East Anglia and finds emails of scientists faking global warming data at will and bragging about it. In Nov. the 2009 Internat. Religious Freedoms Report of the U.S. State Dept. accuses Israel of 'governmental and legal discrimination against non-Jews and non-Orthodox streams of Judaism'. In Nov. the Lutheran Church of Sweden begins conducting same-sex marriages to go with the May law giving same-sex couples equal rights with hetero couples. In Nov. Osama bin Laden's son Omar Bin Laden says that he'd like a job at the U.N. - if Barack Obama can be U.S. president? In Nov. Negar Azizmoradi, atheist leader of the Raelian movement in Iran flees Iranian persecution to Turkey, where she is arrested for having no passport, after which authorities discuss returning her to Iran despite facing execution for apostasy. In Nov. Japan begins installing special blue LEDs over Tokyo railway platforms to help stop suicide attempts; the 2003 record was 34,427 deaths; in 2008 2K jumped in front of trains, 6% of all suicides.

On Dec. 7 Student Day in Iran sees anti-govt. protests despite the govt. imprisoning scores of students in advance. On Dec. 7 the Hopenhagen.org Web site sponsored by Coca-Cola, Siemens, and SAP corps. opens, inviting the world's citizens to sign a petition demanding world leaders draft binding agreements on climate changes; Coca-Cola spearheads a coalition of 100+ cos. pushing a U.N. climate treaty, which commits the world's wealthiest nations to $10T in foreign aid, and possible create an internat. "super-grid" for regulating and distributing electric power; on Dec. 7-18 the 2009 U.N. Climate Change Conference attended by reps from 192 nations is held in Copenhagen, Denmark; Pres. Obama visits it on Dec. 9, then receives his Nobel Prize in Oslo on Dec. 10; Lord Christopher Monckton, former science adviser to British PM Margaret Thatcher claims that the real purpose of the conference is to lay the foundation for a OWG. In Dec. Russia's first Sapsan (Russ. "peregrine falcon") high-speed train begins operation between St. Petersburg and Moscow; it is built by the Siemens Co. of the U.S. Ben & Jerry's renames its popular Chubby Hubby flavor to Hubby Hubby to commemorate gay rights. Tasmania launches its first bank for women. d Moscow; it is built by the Siemens Co. of the U.S.