Expanding Border Powers Creating ‘Constitution-Free Zone’ That Covers Two-Thirds of Americans

Expanding Border Powers Creating ‘Constitution-Free Zone’ That Covers Two-Thirds of Americans

The extraordinary powers of customs and border agents to invade the privacy of individuals at the U.S. border are spreading inland and creating what amounts to a “Constitution-free Zone” that covers fully two-thirds of the American population, the American Civil Liberties Union said today in a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

“The authorities can do things at the border that they could never do to citizens and residents inside our country under the Constitution,” said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “Yet the government is asserting that some of these powers extend as far as 100 miles inside the actual border..."

...the ACLU released a map showing the 100-mile “border region” claimed by the government, and cities and states that fall within it. The map, which was created using the latest census data, shows that fully two-thirds of the U.S. population, including 9 of the nation’s top 10 largest metro areas, is within the border zone.

10/22/2008

http://www.aclu.org/privacy/gen/37306prs20081022.html



Fact Sheet on U.S. "Constitution Free Zone"

- TWO-THIRDS of the United States’ population lives within this Constitution-free or Constitution-lite Zone.
- That’s 197.4 million people who live within 100 miles of the US land and coastal borders.
- 9 of the top 10 largest metropolitan areas as determined by the 2000 census, fall within the Constitution-free Zone.
- Some states are considered to lie completely within the zone: Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.

http://www.aclu.org/privacy/37293res20081022.html



Percentage of Population in Constitution-Free Zone

A chart by state:

http://www.aclu.org/privacy/spying/37320res20081022.html

Greenspan Concedes Error on Free Market Ideaology

Greenspan Concedes Error on Regulation

Facing a firing line of questions from Washington lawmakers, Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman once considered the infallible maestro of the financial system, admitted on Thursday that he “made a mistake” in trusting that free markets could regulate themselves without government oversight.

...Mr. Greenspan conceded a more serious flaw in his own philosophy that unfettered free markets sit at the root of a superior economy.

“I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms,” Mr. Greenspan said.

[Representative Henry A. Waxman (CA-D)] pressed the former Fed chair to clarify his words. “In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology, was not right, it was not working,” Mr. Waxman said.

“Absolutely, precisely,” Mr. Greenspan replied. “You know, that’s precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well.”

Mr. Greenspan said he was in “a state of shocked disbelief” about the breakdown in the ability of banks to regulate themselves. He also warned about the economic consequences of the crisis, saying that he “cannot see how we will avoid a significant rise in layoffs and unemployment.” Consumer spending will decline, too, he said, adding that a stabilization of home prices would be necessary to bring the crisis to its end.

October 23, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/business/economy/24panel.html?ref=business

Financial Panic Now Sweeping Through South America

Financial Panic Now Sweeping Through South America

While the United States wrestled with financial meltdown this fall, Latin American leaders often boasted that their economies were models of stability in an otherwise tumultuous global landscape.

Such confidence gave way, however, to panic this week, as the effects of the U.S. credit crunch and an international downturn wreak havoc on Latin America's formerly booming economies.

October 22, 2008

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/54647.html

ACLU Demands Information On Military Deployment Within U.S. Borders

ACLU Demands Information On Military Deployment Within U.S. Borders

The American Civil Liberties Union has asked the government for information on reports an active Army unit has been stationed inside the US to control “civil unrest.” The Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Team is training for domestic operations under the control of US Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command. The unit will serve as an on-call federal response for large-scale emergencies and disasters. It’s being called the Consequence Management Response Force, CCMRF, or “sea-smurf” for short.

ACLU attorney Jonathan Hafetz said, “Given the magnitude of the issues at stake, it is imperative that the American people know the truth about this new and unprecedented intrusion of the military in domestic affairs.”


10/21/2008

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/37274prs20081021.html

Arctic Temperatures Hit Record High

Arctic temperatures hit record high

Temperatures in the Arctic last fall hit an all-time high — more than 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Centigrade) above normal — and remain almost as high this year, an international team of scientists reported Thursday.

"The year 2007 was the warmest year on record in the Arctic,'' said Jackie Richter-Menge, a climate expert at the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, N.H, and editor of the latest annual Arctic Report Card.

"These are dynamic and dramatic times in the Arctic,'' she said. "The outlook isn't good.''

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/science/story/54229.html

US in Record $455B Federal Deficit

US in Record $455B Federal Deficit

In other economic news, the White House has reported a record federal deficit of nearly $455 billion in fiscal 2008. That’s an increase of $162 billion over 2007. Economists are predicting an even higher number for fiscal year 2009, which began this month. Estimates say the deficit could reach as high as $1 trillion.

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/15/headlines#3


see also:

Deficit Hits $455 Billion, Highest Percent Since ’04

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/15/washington/15deficit.html?scp=1&sq=us%20budget%20deficit&st=cse

Global Markets Continue to Decline

Stocks Slide Amid New Trouble Signs

Wall Street looked beyond the government’s bailout plan on Wednesday and saw more signs that the economy was in for a drastic slowdown.

Analysts said market was continuing react to the same fundamental factors that drove the market lower, including weakness in the manufacturing sector, the large drop in retail sales, and the growing realization that there will be no quick fix to the credit crisis.

European markets closed substantially lower.

Asian countries on Wednesday announced new measures to grapple with fallout from the crisis...Asian policy makers had agreed to create a fund to help any countries suffering liquidity problems, with the World Bank committing $10 billion, The Associated Press reported.

October 15, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/business/16markets.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Dow Soars 11 Percent; Japan Nikkei Up 14 Percent

Dow Soars 11 Percent; Japan Nikkei Up 14 Percent

The unprecedented government intervention has been well received by investors. On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average soared by 936 points, its largest point gain ever. The 11 percent jump was the largest one-day increase since the 1930s. In Japan, the Nikkei share average increased by a record 14 percent today.

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/14/headlines#2


see also:

Stocks Soar 11 Percent on Aid to Banks

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/business/14markets.html?scp=2&sq=dow&st=cse

Global Cooperation Needed for Economic Crisis

Time to Act

On Friday night...the United States was working with other nations to stem the financial crisis and also moving ahead with plans to take equity stakes in struggling banks instead of just buying up their bad assets.

So far, governments on both sides of the Atlantic have bungled their responses. The Bush administration’s $700 billion package to buy bad assets from banks failed to convince anybody that it would solve the problem. Meanwhile, leaders in the European Union pointed fingers, squabbled over burden-sharing and made matters worse with ad-hoc actions on a national level that just pushed the problem onto their neighbors.

October 11, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/11/opinion/11sat1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin



EU bank bail-out plan agreed

Germany, France, Italy and a further 12 European countries have tonight unveiled a "comprehensive" plan for salvaging their banking systems from potential ruin, as panicked European leaders met to try to ward off more financial meltdown before the markets re-opened after the weekend.

The three elements - liquidity support, inter-bank lending guarantees, and recapitalisation of distressed banks - are the core of last week's Brown plan and will, with national variations to take account of differing systems, to become the European standard.

October 12 2008

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/12/banking-europe

IMF Warns: Global Financial System at Brink of Meltdown

IMF sounds 'meltdown' warning

The warning came hours before European leaders began a meeting in the French capital to tackle the deepening financial crisis.

"Intensifying solvency concerns about a number of the largest US-based and European financial institutions have pushed the global financial system to the brink of systemic meltdown," Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF chief, said on Sunday.

October 12, 2008

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2008/10/20081012161810992860.html

Worst Week in Dow's 133-year History

Whiplash Ends a Roller Coaster Week

The Dow has never had a week that bad in its 133-year history.

It was one of the wildest moves in stock market history, and perhaps a fitting conclusion to the worst week in at least 75 years. The Dow and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index both closed down 18 percent for the week...The S.& P. has fallen slightly more only twice before — in 1929 and 1933. This month was the first time that the S.& P. had fallen by more than 1 percent for seven days in a row.

October 10, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/11/business/11markets.html?ref=us&pagewanted=all

Global Anxiety Catches Up to Japan’s Economy

Global Anxiety Catches Up to Japan’s Economy

The world’s second-largest economy seemed enviably immune from the global financial contagion, as its cash-rich banks held little of the subprime debt that contaminated the financial institutions in the United States and Europe. [Friday, there was a] stunning 9.6 percent drop by the benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average — just two days after the index fell 9.4 percent.

One of the biggest shocks came on Friday with the sudden bankruptcy of Yamato Life Insurance, a midsize insurer that became the first Japanese financial institution to fall victim to the global financial collapse.

There is fear here that the nation could soon become collateral damage in a financial crisis not of its own making, which seems to be unfolding with surrealistic speed.

October 10, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/11/business/worldbusiness/11yen.html?ref=business

Iceland is Bankrupt : Financial Collapse

Iceland, in Financial Collapse, Is Likely to Need I.M.F. Help

Iceland’s financial system collapsed Thursday, and analysts said it was probably only a matter of time before the country would have to turn to the International Monetary Fund for help.

Such a move, which would make this small island nation the first sovereign state to fall victim to the credit squeeze that began last year, would require it to accept harsh measures to restore fiscal and monetary stability.

“Iceland is bankrupt,” said Arsaell Valfells, a professor at the University of Iceland. “The Icelandic krona is history. The only sensible option is for the I.M.F. to come and rescue us.”

October 9, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/business/worldbusiness/10icebank.html?scp=2&sq=imf&st=cse



Iceland’s Banks Face Overseas Claims

Like several other European countries, Britain is trying to recover deposits stranded in Icelandic banks that failed in the last two weeks, as the country’s financial system collapsed.

October 10, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/11/business/worldbusiness/11icebank.html?ref=business

Global Depression Cannot Be Ruled Out

Roubini: Global Depression Cannot Be Ruled Out

New York University economics professor Nouriel Roubini is predicting that the US and global economy is heading towards a near-term financial meltdown: “At this point severe damage is done and one cannot rule out a systemic collapse and a global depression. It will take a significant change in leadership of economic policy and very radical, coordinated policy actions among all advanced and emerging market economies to avoid this economic and financial disaster."

World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned developing nations may be particularly hard hit by the market meltdown: “The events of September could be a tipping point for many developing countries. A drop in exports will trigger a fall-off in investments. Deteriorating financial conditions, combined with monetary tightening, will trigger business failures and possibly banking emergencies.”

October 10, 2008

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/10/headlines#1

Vote Rigging and Suppression Ahead of the 2008 Election

Vote Rigging and Suppression Ahead of the 2008 Election

October 09, 2008

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/9/greg_palast_on_vote_rigging_and


ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR.: You know, a lot of Europeans wonder, why are Americans so crazy? They keep reelecting this guy. Well, the answer is, we don’t. You know, they keep stealing these elections. And they stole it in 2000, they stole it in 2004, and they’re all set up to steal it again.


GREG PALAST: In the last presidential election, officially, three million votes were cast and never counted. This time, it could go a lot higher. [Democrats and Republicans are] in on the game.


JUAN GONZALEZ: [V]oting rights groups are warning that tens of thousands of registered voters might not be able to cast a ballot come November 4th.

Beyond the documented problems of electronic voting machines, thousands of names have been purged from the rolls in several states, including at least six swing states. In some states, voters have been deemed ineligible because of voter registration laws that require photo identification or due to state officials checking voter names against Social Security databases.


In "Steal Back Your Vote", by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Greg Palast, there is a list of 7 ways voters can try to ensure that their vote is counted.

Free Downloads of "Steal Back Your Vote" available at

stealbackyourvote.org

U.S. Military May Be Deployed Against U.S. Citizens - The End of Posse Comitatus?

Is Posse Comitatus Dead? US Troops on US Streets

October 07, 2008

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/7/us_army_denies_unit_will_be

...a US Army unit [the Consequence Management Response Force, CCMRF, or “sea-smurf” for short.] is now training for domestic operations under the control of US Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command. [T]he force “may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control.” The military has since claimed the force will not be used for civil unrest, but questions remain. [DemocracyNow! speaks] to Army Col. Michael Boatner, future operations division chief of USNORTHCOM, and Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive magazine.

...there is a law on the books called the Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act that says that the president of the United States, as commander-in-chief, cannot put the military on our streets. And this is a violation of that...

President Bush tried to get around this act a couple years ago in the Defense Authorization Act that he signed that got rid of some of those restrictions...National Security Presidential Directive 51, that he signed on May 9th of 2007...gives the President enormous powers to declare a catastrophic emergency and to bypass our regular system of laws, essentially, to impose a form of martial law.

[A] letter, signed by every member of the National Governors Association, said, “This provision was drafted without consultation or input from governors and represents an unprecedented shift in authority from governors…to the federal government.”

If the economy does collapse, if people can’t go down to the bank to withdraw their savings, or get cash from an ATM, there may be serious “civil unrest,” and the “sea-smurfs” may be called upon sooner than we imagine to assist with “crowd control.”

see also:

Invasion of the Sea-Smurfs

October 02, 2008

http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2008/10/2/amy_goodmans_latest_column_invasion_of_the_sea_smurfs

European, Asian Markets Plunge as Recession Fears Spread Worldwide

European, Asian Markets Plunge as Recession Fears Spread Worldwide

As stock indexes plunge across Europe and Asia, Britain unveiled plans today to inject up to 50 billion pounds—close to $90 billion—into its biggest retail banks. Recent efforts to bolster world credit markets have failed to stem fears that the spreading financial crisis could lead to a global recession. We go to Rome to speak to economist Loretta Napoleoni, author of Rogue Economics: Capitalism’s New Reality.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/8/european_asian_markets_plunge_as_recession



the following articles include:
the economies of Russia, Asia, Britain, Iceland, Central and Eastern Europe


In Russia, a Struggle for Markets Just to Stay Open

Every day this week, regulators have had to halt trading on Russia’s main bourses, the world’s hardest-hit stock markets during the current crisis...Regulators said the Micex would reopen on Friday; the RTS was suspended indefinitely.

At issue are two problems. First, Russian companies used shares as collateral to borrow an untold amount of money. Second, the market decline is forcing a spiral of margin-call selling.

Published: October 8, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/business/worldbusiness/09ruble.html?ref=business


Stocks Fall Sharply in Asia

By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: October 5, 2008

Stock markets fell sharply in early trading on Monday in Asia on growing fears about the health of banks around the world and the prospects for a downturn in Asian exports to the weakening economies of the United States and Europe.

The Nikkei 225 Index dropped 4.3 percent in Tokyo by early afternoon on Monday, as waves of selling pushed the index steadily lower. The Kospi Index in Seoul was off 4.4 percent. The Standard and Poor’s/Australian Stock Exchange 200 Index in Sydney was down 3.3 percent, the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong fell 3.4 percent and the Taiex Index in Taiwan declined 4.1 percent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/business/07asiastox.html?scp=2&sq=asia&st=cse


Britain Takes a Different Route to Rescue Its Banks

By LANDON THOMAS JR. and JULIA WERDIGIER
Published: October 8, 2008

In a bold move to restore confidence, Britain announced an unprecedented £50 billion government lifeline for the nation’s banks Wednesday that it hailed as a quicker solution to the credit crisis than a $700 billion American plan to buy impaired mortgage assets from troubled financial institutions.

Britain offered banks like Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and HSBC Holdings up to £50 billion, or $88 billion, to shore up their capital in exchange for preferred shares. It will also provide a guarantee of about £250 billion ($438 billion) to help banks refinance debt. The Bank of England will double the amount it lends to banks under its special liquidity plan to £200 billion.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose political legacy is at stake, presented the British strategy as a means to address the heart of the crisis — fear among banks to lend. “This is not the American plan,” he said Wednesday. “Our plan is to buy shares in the banks themselves and therefore we will have a stake in the banks. We are not simply giving money.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/business/worldbusiness/09pound.html?pagewanted=all


Britain Announces Huge Bank Bailout

By JULIA WERDIGIER
Published: October 8, 2008

Britain on Wednesday announced a rescue package for its beleaguered banks, which the prime minister described as more extensive than America’s bailout plan and which could leave the country’s top lenders partly owned by the government.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/business/worldbusiness/09britain.html


Bank Crisis Is Bypassing Central and East Europe

New members of the European Union in Central and Eastern Europe have — so far — avoided much of the upheaval caused by the crisis of confidence in the global financial system.

Although consumer spending is falling and growth rates are declining in the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and particularly in Estonia, analysts said the trends were not related to the banking turmoil spreading across the Continent.

Published: October 8, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/business/worldbusiness/09euroeast.html?ref=business


In Flailing Iceland, Disbelief and Regret

By ERIC PFANNER
Published: October 8, 2008

The global financial crisis has laid waste to some major banks and other financial institutions in the United States and Europe, but Iceland may be the first country to face the prospect of going bust along with them...with the country facing the imminent threat of “national bankruptcy,” as Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde put it earlier this week, many people are talking about an epochal change. The only problem is that nobody knows what that might mean. The Rev. Karl Sigurbjornsson, the bishop of Iceland, who leads the state-sponsored Lutheran church, says he worries about how the prospect of financial suffering will affect a society that “was led to believe that it was unlimited growth forever.” To Bishop Sigurbjornsson, the silver lining in the financial crisis is the prospect that it will bring Icelanders, steeped in the sagas of the Vikings, back in touch with traditional values.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/business/worldbusiness/09icebank.html?ref=business&pagewanted=all

U.N. Says Biofuel Subsidies Raise Food Bill and Hunger

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: October 7, 2008

A United Nations food agency called on Tuesday for a review of biofuel subsidies and policies, noting that they had contributed significantly to rising food prices and the hunger in poor countries.

With policies and subsidies to encourage biofuel production in place in much of the developed world, farmers often find it more profitable to plants crops for fuel than for food, a shift that has helped lead to global food shortages.

Current policies should be “urgently reviewed in order to preserve the goal of world food security, protect poor farmers, promote broad-based rural development and ensure environmental sustainability,” said a report released here on Tuesday by Jacques Diouf, the executive director of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

In a devastating assessment released this summer, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development concluded that government support of biofuel production in member countries was hugely expensive and that it “had a limited impact on reducing greenhouse gases and improving energy security.” It did have “a significant impact on world crop prices” by helping to raise them.

“National governments should cease to create new mandates for biofuels and investigate ways to phase them out,” the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development concluded in its report. The organization includes European countries, the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia.

But a host of studies in the past year concluded that the rush to biofuels had some disastrous, if unintended, consequences for food security and the environment. Less food is available to eat in poor countries, global grain prices have skyrocketed and precious forests have been lost as farmers have created fields to join the biofuel boom, the studies said.

Worse still, specialists say, so much energy is required to convert many plants into fuel that the process does not result in a savings of carbon emissions. The O.E.C.D.’s report said only two food-based fuels were clearly environmentally better than fossil fuels when considering the entire “life cycle” of their production: used cooking oil and sugar cane from Brazil. Sugar cane is far easier to convert to biofuel than most other crops.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/world/europe/08italy.html?ref=science

No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential Debates

The Obama and McCain campaigns jointly negotiated a detailed secret contract dictating the terms of all the 2008 debates. This includes who gets to participate, as well as the topics raised during the debates. [Democracy Now! speaks] to Open Debates founder and executive director George Farah.

The Republican, Democratic parties, who exert near absolute control over these public forums, have determined and made sure that no third party voices are ever seen on the debate stage and can challenge their dominance of our political system.

[T]he contract[s] remains a secret, and the Commission on Presidential Debates, a private corporation created by the two major parties...

Unfortunately, much of the money that finances the presidential debates that are hosted by the Commission on Presidential Debates are private corporations that have regulatory interests before Congress.

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/2/no_debate_how_the_republican_and

Gore’s Call to Action : Urges Civil Disobedience Against New Coal Plants

...I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration,” he said at the third annual meeting of former President Bill Clinton’s initiative, which arranges partnerships between the very rich and the very needy.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/gores-call-to-action/?scp=3&sq=gore&st=cse

1 in 4 Mammals Threatened, Study Says

An “extinction crisis” is under way, with one in four mammals in danger of disappearing because of habitat loss, hunting and climate change, a leading global conservation body warned Monday.

“Within our lifetime, hundreds of species could be lost as a result of our own actions,” said Julia Marton-Lefèvre, the director general of the International Union for Conservation of Nature...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/science/earth/07mammal.html?ref=science

Third Party VP Candidates Matt Gonzalez and Rosa Clemente Respond to Biden-Palin Debate

We play excerpts of the much-anticipated showdown between Sen. Joe Biden and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and get reaction from two vice-presidential candidates excluded from the debate: Matt Gonzalez, running mate of Independent candidate Ralph Nader, and Rosa Clemente, running mate of Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party. [includes rush transcript]

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/3/third_party_vp_candidates_matt_gonzalez