1) Israelis may stay home to avoid arrest in Europe... UN/Anti-Israel
2) Will Fox News Be Banned From Census Money?... Politics/Democrats/Abuse of Power
3) Pakistanis say U.S. hoards intelligence, Blame CIA for failure to catch terror leaders... Obama/Weak on Terrorism
4) Democrats Losing Big in Va, N.J. Gov. Races... Democrats/Obama/Backlash/Politics
5) Liberals Risking Global Economy... Democrats/Liberals/Anti Capitalism
6) China buys all-American Hummer for $150 million... China/Cars/Interest
7) Nicaragua's newest tycoon? 'Socialist' president Daniel Ortega... Liberals/Double Standards/Socialism
8) Limbaugh May Have Grounds for Libel Suit, Legal Analysts Say... Democrat/Liberal/Criminal Behavior
9) Baby Survives After Stroller Falls Off Australia Train Platform... Amazing/Shocking



1) Israelis may stay home to avoid arrest in Europe... UN/Anti-Israel
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/13/israelis-may-stay-home-to-avoid-arrest/?source=newsletter_must-read-stories-today_photo_feature

October 13, 2009
Israel is seriously considering restricting travel to Europe by its senior officials and military officers, fearing they might be arrested in the wake of a disputed U.N. report that accuses the Jewish state of targeting civilians in its Gaza war earlier this year.

Avital Leibovich, a spokeswoman for the Israel Defense Forces, told The Washington Times on Monday, "Currently there is no specific advisory and different senior officers are continuing their travel as planned. However, we are in touch and we are discussing with the foreign ministry and other legal authorities whether we need to take additional steps like potential restrictions of travel."

Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon, a retired Israeli general who now serves as minister for strategic affairs, canceled a trip to London out of concern that he might face an arrest warrant, said Jonathan Peled, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday harshly criticized the U.N. report, written by a team headed by South African Judge Richard Goldstone, "as distorted" and vowed not to permit the Israeli officials who launched the Gaza war "to arrive at the International Court in The Hague." The U.N. Security Council will discuss the report on Wednesday.

Israel launched the offensive to stop the militant Palestinian group Hamas from firing rockets on Israeli cities from Gaza, which Hamas controls. While the war is viewed in Israel as a tactical success, its large civilian death toll - estimated at 926 by Palestinian rights groups and at least 295 by Israel - has created significant diplomatic fallout.

Not only do Israeli leaders and senior military officers face potential legal problems in Europe, but Israel's long-held goal of normalizing relations with Arab and Muslim states has been set back.

On Sunday, Turkey - a rare Muslim country with close military ties with Israel - canceled an annual air force drill that would have included Israel.

Qatar, a Gulf state that kept an unofficial embassy, known as an interest section, in Israel long after most Arab states closed theirs, shuttered it in January, citing the Gaza war.

In March, the queen or sheikha of Qatar, Mozah Bint Nasser al Missned, hired a U.S. public relations firm, Fenton Communications. According to the contract filed with the Justice Department, Fenton will support an "international public opinion awareness campaign that advocates for the accountability for those who participated in attacks on schools in Gaza."

The Gaza war also has hurt ties with Arab countries that have signed peace treaties with Israel.

Nabil Fahmy, a former Egyptian ambassador to the United States, said, "Middle Easterners are fed up with Israel's excessive use of force, most recently in Lebanon and Gaza. This anger has now extended beyond the region to the international community because the Israeli practices are recurrent in flagrant violation of the rules of war and basic human rights."

While the Goldstone report accuses both Israel and Hamas of suspected war crimes, Israeli officials see themselves as the biggest targets and charge that Mr. Goldstone's findings effectively deprive the Jewish state of the right to self-defense.

One of the report's recommendations is that countries that have signed the Geneva Conventions "start criminal investigations in national courts, using universal jurisdiction, where there is sufficient evidence of the commission of grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949. Where so warranted following investigation, alleged perpetrators should be arrested and prosecuted in accordance with internationally recognized standards of justice."

This concept was tested last month when 16 Palestinians in Britain asked a London court to issue an arrest warrant for Ehud Barak, the Israeli defense minister who also served in that position during the Gaza war in December and January. Deputy District Judge Daphne Wickham ruled that Mr. Barak had diplomatic immunity.

Nevertheless, Mr. Ya'alon last month "decided not to go to Britain because he learned that there was an attempt in the United Kingdom to try to press charges against him for war crimes following the attempt with Defense Minister Ehud Barak a week earlier," Mr. Peled said.

The Goldstone report was commissioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council, a body that includes many authoritarian states, such as Cuba, China and Saudi Arabia. The U.N. panel has focused much attention on Israel in recent years, with no similar investigations into abuses such as Sudan's campaign against Darfur, Iran's execution of minors or the Sri Lankan campaign against the Tamil Tigers.

Israeli and many Western critics of the Goldstone report say it ignores the fact that Hamas sought to increase civilian casualties by launching rockets and placing military positions amid the civilian population.

Ms. Leibovich said the Israel Defense Forces sought to minimize those casualties and consulted attorneys when decisions were made about targeting specific buildings in Gaza from the air. Given that Gaza is one of the most densely populated regions in the world, however, civilian casualties were inevitable.

A senior Israeli official, who asked not to be named because he was discussing ongoing diplomacy, warned that there could be repercussions for Israeli relations with European countries that seek to arrest Israeli officials because of the Gaza war.

"There is ongoing work with Spain, Norway, Britain and other countries," the official said. "It is an ongoing effort to explain the dangers of universal jurisdiction [allowing third parties to take court action involving disputes to which they were not a party]. This should be about Somalia and Sudan who have no ability or interest to investigate themselves."

This official added that there also could be implications for Israeli cooperation with the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank.

Earlier this month, Shalom Kital, an aide to Mr. Barak, said Israel would deny the necessary portion of the radio spectrum for a cell phone company contract in the West Bank if the Palestinian Authority did not drop its request to bring Israel before the International Criminal Court in light of the Goldstone Report.

The report gives Israel six months to investigate the charges before recommending that the matter be sent to that court.

Mr. Netanyahu also warned Monday that Israel would be less prone to restart peace negotiations with the Palestinians if its officials face prosecution over the Gaza war.

"Israel will not take risks for peace if it can't defend itself," he said.










2) Will Fox News Be Banned From Census Money?... Politics/Democrats/Abuse of Power
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/census_fox_news_beck/2009/10/11/270963.html?s=al&promo_code=8BAC-1

October 11, 2009
The upcoming 2020 Census comes with a mega-budget for advertising to media companies to encourage citizens to participate, but some media companies may be banned if the Obama-run Census Bureau has its way.

The Census Bureau's web site details its planned media offensive "in order to inform everyone about the 2010 Census and its importance, the U.S. Census Bureau has developed an integrated communications campaign (ICC) that includes paid media, earned media, a national partnership program and the Census in Schools program."

But the Census Bureau also makes clear that media with "controversial talk" formats will be banned from getting any ad deals, as will other media that don't fit the Census Bureau criteria. According to the Census, prejudice and bigotry are the biggest moral crimes and saying something bad about an imam can get you blacklisted.

The Census Bureau website even provides a "Questionaire" that media applicants are required to fill out to see if they are up to snuff, as the Bureau sees it.

On the online form, question number one asks media vendors if they adhere to the Bureau's "Content Appropriateness guidelines" and "identifies restricted environments for all Census paid media and value added opportunities."

The Bureau then lists the criteria that will put a media company their blacklist:

# Excessive sex or violence

# Anti-U.S. government sentiments or supporting any violent acts toward the government or the American people, including but not limited to terrorism

# Questionable moral or ethical values, particularly dealing with bigotry or prejudice

# Denigration of any cultural group or faith-based communities (imams, ministers, nuns, priests, rabbis, etc.)

# Anticipated controversial programming that cannot be pre-screened (i.e. reality programming)

# Controversial talk formats

The Census Bureau hasn't weighed in yet, but we're wondering if they think Fox's O'Reilly, Hannity and Beck fit into their "controversial talk" category.














3) Pakistanis say U.S. hoards intelligence, Blame CIA for failure to catch terror leaders... Obama/Weak on Terrorism
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/12/pakistanis-say-us-hoards-intelligence/?source=newsletter_must-read-stories-today_photo_feature

October 12, 2009
Despite growing success targeting militants in Pakistan's northwest, the U.S. is refusing to share intelligence with Pakistan about al Qaeda and Afghan Taliban leaders thought to be hiding in the southwest province of Baluchistan, three senior Pakistani officials say.

The officials, two of whom spoke to The Washington Times on the condition of anonymity because they were discussing a sensitive topic, suggested that some of the blame for the long failure to capture Osama bin Laden, former Afghan leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and other members of what is known as the Quetta shura or council lies with the United States.

The "CIA has not shared any actionable intelligence with the Pakistan government on al Qaeda [in Baluchistan] since 2006 and 2007," a Pakistani defense official said.

The Pakistanis are pushing for more intelligence sharing after a string of terrorist attacks including a weekend strike on Pakistan's equivalent of the Pentagon, which led to a 22-hour hostage standoff that ended with at least 19 deaths.

A suicide car bomb on Friday killed more than 50 civilians at a crowded market in Peshawar, and an attack on a U.N. office a week ago killed five aid workers.

The Pakistani defense official said that "dated intelligence delivered by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to Pakistan months ago" that al Qaeda leaders and the Taliban leadership council run by Mullah Omar are in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan, is too "flimsy to act on."

"Now the U.S. intelligence says that [al Qaeda] is holed up in Quetta," the official said. "Has any U.S. intelligence agency given us any actionable intelligence with Pakistan? No. This is only talk."

There have been concerns that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency still contains sympathizers with the Afghan Taliban, which the ISI helped create in the 1990s during an Afghan civil war.

In a recent assessment of the Afghanistan war that was leaked to the press, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal noted reports that ties remain between the ISI and the Afghan Taliban. Pakistan denies this.

Asked about the situation in Quetta, Pakistani Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi told reporters and editors at The Times last week that the U.S. must trust Pakistan for the fight against terrorism to succeed.

"If you are working for a common objective, the more you share real-time intelligence, the more effective your operations will be," he said.

"We consider you to be [a] friend and we want to be friends," Mr. Qureshi said. "But we want to be equal friends. We want to be friends with a common objective. You've got to trust us; only then will we trust you."

Later, he told the Council on Foreign Relations, "We have no liking for the Quetta shura and what it stands for. ... Collectively we can do a better job. ... We will have to build a relationship of trust and confidence. If you keep doubting our intentions and we keep doubting your intentions, then where is this partnership going?"

A senior U.S. counterterrorism official said the U.S. takes "exception to the notion that information on the Quetta shura hasn't been shared with the government of Pakistan."

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the nature of his work, added that "on matters related to terrorism, there is regular information sharing with the Pakistanis at all levels of their government."

Pakistani officials acknowledge, however, that shared U.S. intelligence on al Qaeda may have leaked by what they term "rogue agents" in 2006 and 2007, when a target of a U.S. drone attack escaped just before the planned strike.

"Still, it was only a hunch on the part of the U.S. that the leak came from the ISI," the Pakistani defense official said. "Even if the leak came from the ISI, things have improved. We have told the CIA and the Defense Department to give the information to only our two most prominent officials - no one else. If it leaks, then they'll know who leaked it. It does no good to leave your ally in the dark. If you think by sharing, that there would be a tip-off, then share with the top of us."

The Pakistani defense official said his country has military and intelligence capabilities in Quetta that could target terrorists with U.S. help.

Over the past year, U.S.-Pakistani cooperation in a different region - the tribal belt in Pakistan's northwest - has led to the killings of 13 senior militants in U.S. drone attacks. The latest victim, in September, was Najmiddin Jalolov, alias Yahov, 37, leader of an Uzbek militant group, the Islamic Jihad Union, closely associated with al Qaeda. The group had attempted several attacks in Germany and Uzbekistan.

A Pakistani official said Jalolov was killed in North Waziristan.

Although the drone attacks have been increasingly successful, U.S. officials say, Pakistani militants whose groups were supported by the ISI in the past are helping al Qaeda recruit new operatives. Among these groups are Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, Laskhar-e-Jhangvi and the Islamic Jihad Movement.

The ISI backed these groups to gain leverage in Pakistan's efforts to wrest Kashmir away from India. Recent attacks on India proper, including an attack in Mumbai last year that killed more than 170 people, also have been blamed on the groups.

A U.S. defense official said that the ISI may "have lost enormous control over" these organizations. The official asked not to be named because he was discussing intelligence matters.

While targeting leaders of Pakistan's own Taliban movement, the ISI is thought to retain links with the Afghan Taliban as a hedge against any U.S. withdrawal from that country and the rise of Indian influence there. Pakistan also wants to counter a separatist movement in Baluchistan.

"To a certain extent, they play both sides," Defense Secretary Robert Gates told CBS' "60 Minutes" in May, speaking of the Pakistani relationship with the Afghan militants.

Mr. Qureshi said Pakistan intended to devote more resources to Baluchistan and that policies toward Islamic militants had changed with the return of democratic government last year and the election of a party whose leader, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated.

He told the Council on Foreign Relations that "if we feel there is an element in Quetta that is destabilizing Pakistan, we will not spare that element. ... Because we want to clear our territory of all kind of mischief. These people have caused us more harm than anybody else."













4) Democrats Losing Big in Va, N.J. Gov. Races... Democrats/Obama/Backlash/Politics
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/obama_governor_races/2009/10/11/270968.html?s=al&promo_code=8B97-1

October 11, 2009
CAMDEN, New Jersey - Democrats running for governor in New Jersey and Virginia face possible defeat in November, despite strong showings by President Barack Obama in those states last year, in elections that could render the first judgments on the Obama presidency.

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, a close Obama ally, is struggling to win re-election in the face of a strong challenge by Republican Christopher Christie.

The Obama administration has turned out in support of Corzine, a wealthy former Goldman Sachs executive.

At a rally in Atlantic City this week, Vice President Joe Biden said it was "critically important" that Corzine is re-elected.

The Corzine campaign adapted the popular Obama slogan, hanging a banner next to Biden reading: "Yes we can -- again.

In Virginia, the only other U.S. state with a gubernatorial contest this year, Democrat Creigh Deeds has been losing so much ground in the polls to Republican Bob McDonnell that he has blamed the Obama administration's $787 billion economic stimulus plan for his low popularity.

A Washington Post poll published on Friday gave McDonnell a commanding lead of 53 percent to 44 percent, with less than a month to go until election day.

"Frankly, a lot of what's going on in Washington has made it very tough," Deeds told Politico newspaper. "We had a very tough August because people were just uncomfortable with the spending."

The Virginia race, where incumbent Democratic Governor Tim Kaine cannot run because of term limits, is more likely to be decided on national issues such as the economy and healthcare, said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

A recent survey showed many voters in Virginia, where Obama won by 6 percentage points, expect taxes to rise as a result of a U.S. healthcare overhaul being considered in Congress.

Biden campaigned for Deeds this week in Virginia and the Democratic National Committee allocated another $1 million for his campaign. Democrats were waiting to see if Obama would make another appearance on Deeds' behalf.

The race in heavily Democratic New Jersey reflects more the struggles of an unpopular incumbent than the national political mood, and will be decided on Corzine's handling of such issues as the state's high property taxes, analysts said.

Corzine has lagged in polls, sometimes by double digits, for months in a state that Obama won by 15 points and where the legislature is controlled by Democrats. The race has tightened up in recent weeks.

Corzine has tried to link Christie, a former U.S. Attorney with a successful record prosecuting corrupt public officials and suspected terrorists, to former President George W. Bush, whose market deregulation Corzine blames for the nation's financial crisis.

"We went through Bush-whacking for eight years, and we have got a lot of work to do," Corzine said. "We shouldn't be turning the keys to the state house over to the people who wrecked the economy."

Corzine has spent freely, having raised $16.8 million, $15.6 million of which came from his own pocket, while Christie has raised $9.6 million, official figures show.

The race has been so negative that Corzine ran a TV ad this week that appeared to mock the portly Christie for his weight.

"Corzine is in trouble," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. Its polls show Christie leading by 7 to 12 points since the start of 2009.

Carroll attributed Corzine's troubles in large part to New Jersey's economy, where unemployment stood at 9.5 percent in August, equal to the current national rate but higher than in neighboring New York and Pennsylvania.

Corzine should be doing better because the anti-incumbent vote is split between Christie and an unexpectedly strong showing by third-party challenger Chris Daggett, who has been polled up to 13 percent in recent weeks, Carroll said.

In addition, the governor is sometimes described as lacking the common touch. "He's not a convivial guy," Carroll said.

Christie has won support outside of traditional Republican circles, such as the endorsement of the New Jersey Environmental Federation which is backing a Republican for statewide office for the first time.

Christie, who is running on a platform of lower state spending and tax cuts, dismissed his shrinking lead as part of the process.

"This is a natural tightening of the race that happens when people start locking in," he said, adding that polls show his candidacy is very much alive in a state that has not elected a Republican governor since Christine Todd Whitman in 1994, recently abolished the death penalty and passed a civil unions law for same-sex couples.

"I should be dead and buried by now," Christie said.

Democrats currently hold 28 governorships in the 50 states, while Republicans have 22.












5) Liberals Risking Global Economy... Democrats/Liberals/Anti Capitalism
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/Peter_Schweizer_book/2009/10/10/270820.html?s=al&promo_code=8B97-1

October 10, 2009
Author Peter Schweizer says as a young lawyer in Chicago, Barack Obama played an important role in shifting the balance of power away from free-market forces actions that continue to reverberate today.

"A lot of people are familiar with Barack Obama as a community activist, but people don't realize that he was very involved in litigation against banks," said Schweizer, a best-selling author whose latest book is "Architects of Ruin: How Big Government Liberals Wrecked The Global Economy And How They Will Do It Again If No One Stops Them."

Schweizer, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, told Newmax.TV's Ashley Martella that in 1994, Obama "sued Citibank on behalf of several African-Americans who said that they had been denied mortgages by Citibank because of racism. Now, they freely admitted that they all had poor credit, but they argued that they were denied the credit the home mortgages, in this case because of racial discrimination. Barack Obama and two other attorneys filed suit, claiming that Citibank not only violated the Free Credit Act, but also violated the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which was the constitutional amendment that abolished slavery.

"This was just one act that was replicated thousands of times by other lawyers and other activists who were convinced that the banking system was racist and we had to force them to, in effect, engage in affirmative action lending in order to bring equity to the financial system."

Schweizer also agreed that big business has been all too willing to see government intervention grow, as long as profits are protected or enhanced. He said this corporate complicity is a big part of the problem.

"Oh absolutely. There's no question. The Nobel-winning economist Milton Friedman once said there's a huge difference between being pro-business and pro-free market. What you've seen in American government policy toward Wall Street is pro-big business, pro the big Wall Street investment houses. So you have right now the Obama administration pushing legislation that will make it clear that certain investment houses are too big to fail; that we will bail them out if they get into trouble.

The problem is, it's a little bit like if your teenage son comes home and has been arrested for DWI and you bail him out and you give him the keys to the car and you throw a couple six-packs in the back seat. What do you think he's going to do? If he has not been held responsible for what he's done, he's going to engage in more risky behavior. That's what we have on Wall Street, and you have this collaboration between the big firms on Wall Street and big government in Washington. They reinforce each other, and the American taxpayer, that's you and me, are required to foot the bill for all this speculation."

But Schweizer offers a solution to end what he calls the corruption of government-sponsored capitalism.

"I think the first thing you have to do is, the federal government in Washington has to take the position [that] nobody is too big to fail, and they have to make clear that if you speculate and you lose, you're going to lose shirt; we are not going to bail you out. Until Wall Street learns that they're going to continue to be as speculative as they have been. Capitalism should be about profit and loss. You profit if you make good investments, make wise choices and even speculate and are right. But if you're wrong, you over-leverage yourself, you take unnecessary risks, you're going to lose your shirt and we are not going to bail you out. Until that changes, we're going to continue to have these kind of financial bubbles in the future."

Schweizer also sees a parallel between the Beltway attitudes that led to America's financial meltdown, the current healthcare debate, and the looming insolvency of Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security.

"I think there's a huge parallel on a couple levels. First of all, you have people in Washington who believe they're very smart and that they can social engineer and fix very complex problems by simply passing some bills. And these are bills so complicated that they haven't even read them, they don't even understand them. The problem is, when you engage in this kind of social engineering, taking a complex problem like housing or healthcare, and say the government is going to fix it, you have all kinds of unintended consequences. And that is surely going to happen here. So there are enormous parallels. We're going to continue to have these problems, and American prosperity and our economic choices are going to suffer."

Asked about his opinion of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Schweizer was blunt.

"Well, the treasury secretary is really more of the same. I actually talk about it in 'Architects of Ruin' because those bailouts in the 1990s Tim Geithner was involved in those as a Treasury Department official at the time and was a big supporter of them. So he embraces this mentality. So do other senior people in the Obama administration who have the same view, which is that you have to have this collaboration of big business and big government; they need to reinforce each other and they need to protect each other. So it's more of the same, and I think that the change that people thought might happen with the Obama administration on the financial front is not there. It's more of the same, and we can expect more of these financial bubbles in the future."











6) China buys all-American Hummer for $150 million... China/Cars/Interest
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/10/chinese-firm-closes-hummer-deal/?source=newsletter_must-read-stories-today_headlines

October 10, 2009
Nothing was more American than the Hummer.

It was Schwarzenegger, cigars and swagger, laughing in the face of scornful environmentalists.

Only now the Chinese are laughing.

General Motors sold the military-inspired off-road brand to China's Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. for a reported $150 million on Friday, consummating a deal announced in early June.

Tengzhong, a sprawling conglomerate with no car-building experience, will own 80 percent of the company. Hong Kong investor Suolang Duoji, who in turn is a major investor in Tengzhong, will own the rest. They will assume existing agreements with Hummer's 160 U.S. dealerships, including two in the Washington area.

In its June bankruptcy filing, GM estimated that Hummer was worth $500 million. The deal requires regulatory approval in both Washington and Beijing.

GM said it will continue to make the Hummer at least until June 2011, with an option to continue another year. Hummer's management team will stay in place, and company headquarters will be located in the Detroit area.

After GM's attempts to sell its Saturn brand failed last week, analysts called the deal a victory for GM despite the low price tag.

"It's good news for General Motors, they actually got some money out of it versus having to spend money to wind it down, as they have to do with Saturn," said Michelle Krebs, an analyst with auto information site Edmunds.com.

Back in February, while seeking more federal aid, GM said that it would sell or close its Hummer, Saturn and Saab divisions in an effort to succeed as a leaner, more profitable company.

Concern about Hummer's sale to the Chinese was muted.

"Yeah, it feels a little weird," said Anthony Cancel, new car sales manager at Moore Cadillac Hummer in Chantilly.

"But Americans are still going to build these cars" for a while, Mr. Cancel said. "That's going to employ 3,000 Americans."

He noted that even with Hummer's future in doubt, his dealership was still selling 15 of the vehicles a month, down from a peak of 75. GM has not produced the car for six months, he said.

"It came at a pretty good time, we only have two left. From the time they turn the factory on it takes four weeks for us to get cars," Mr. Cancel said.

Ms. Krebs said the Chinese are following the lead of the Japanese and Koreans, but not by building the cars on their own.

"The Chinese are achieving a global presence by acquisition rather than introducing their own brands," she said. "They're buying low right now."

Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. has joined a Swedish consortium led by Koenigsegg seeking to complete the purchase of Saab this month. China's Geely Automobile was interested in buying Opel from GM and is bidding to buy Volvo from Ford Motor Co.

"It's the same with the Indians, with Tata [Motors] buying Jaguar and Land Rover," Ms. Krebs said.

The Financial Times reported this week that Geely's bid for money-losing Volvo was worth $2 billion but that Ford had concerns about protecting its technology. The London newspaper reported that a U.S. consortium led by former Detroit executives has also placed a bid.

Independent auto analyst Tom Libby said trade is so interconnected now that Chinese ownership of Hummer is unlikely to diminish its macho appeal.

"I have always held that the Hummer brand has value in this market and I consider it a viable competitor to Jeep," he said.

The Jeep had its origin in the U.S. military, he said, and still benefits from "sort of a patriotism connection."

The Hummer is derived from the Humvee, the U.S. military's successor to the Jeep.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican and former action-movie hero, persuaded military contractor AM General to make a civilian version of the Humvee in the early 1990s. AM General of South Bend, Ind., continues to make the military Humvee.

The challenge for Hummer, with fresh capital from Tengzhong, will be to reinvent the brand, which has suffered in recent years from its gas-guzzling image. The company will improve efficiency and performance and branch out to alternative fuels and diesel engines.

There's no image problem in China, though.

"I think it works for China," Ms. Krebs said. "I have been to China and Hummers are real popular there, even though they are only sold on the gray market. I've seen them on the streets of Shanghai.

"They're popular in the Middle East and there are opportunities elsewhere, such as Russia," she said.














7) Nicaragua's newest tycoon? 'Socialist' president Daniel Ortega... Liberals/Double Standards/Socialism
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1014/p06s01-woam.html

October 6, 2009
Managua, Nicaragua - Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega doesn't talk like most successful businessmen. The former revolutionary leader is much more likely to rail against the evils of "savage capitalism" than he is to discuss his multi-million dollar business ventures.

Yet despite his rhetorical stance against the "failed imperialist model," Mr. Ortega and his inner circle of Sandinista confidants are quickly and quietly becoming the new masters of the impoverished country's economy.

Since returning to the presidency in 2007 – 17 years after being voted out of office at the end of the Sandinista revolution in 1990 – Ortega has created a network of private businesses that operate under the auspices of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), an opaque cooperation agreement of leftist countries bankrolled primarily by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

Ortega's "ALBA businesses" – known by an alphabet soup of acronyms, including ALBANISA, ALBALINISA, and ALBACARUNA – have cornered Nicaragua's petroleum import and distribution markets, become the country's leading energy supplier and cattle exporter, turned profits on the sale of donated Russian buses, and purchased a hotel in downtown Managua, among other lucrative investment moves.

While government secrecy has cast a long shadow over the business operations, the light that gets through reveals profits registering in the hundreds of millions of dollars, despite the economy's slip into recession.

In 2008, Nicaragua's Central Bank reported that Venezuela gave Nicaragua $457 million in aid, all of which was managed privately by Ortega's ALBA holdings, with no third-party oversight. ALBANISA, a joint Venezuelan-Nicaraguan oil company linked to Ortega, recently signed a 15-year energy contract expected to net the company upwards of $500 million, depending on price fluctuations. And last year's oil imports earned the ALBA group an additional $280 million in revenue, according to calculations by opposition leader and former Inter-American Development Bank analyst Edmundo Jarquín.

"Maybe Ortega isn't the richest man in the country, but he is making more than anyone else in Nicaragua," Mr. Jarquín said.

Blurring the line between state and first family?

Critics say President Ortega and the Sandinista Front have created a web of businesses operations that have blurred the distinction between party, state, and first family. For example, Ortega's personal confidant Francisco López is the treasurer of the Sandinista Front, as well as the president of the government-run Petronic petroleum company, the vice-president of the private-run ALBANISA, the president of ALALINISA, and the administration's representative to power-distributor Unión Fenosa, of which the Sandinista government recently purchased 16 percent. At this point, critics say, it's impossible to know whose interests he or his businesses represent.

"Wherever there is confusion or a conflict of interests between the state and the government, and the ruling party and the first family, the situation becomes corrupted," said former Attorney General Alberto Novoa, who spearheaded the anti-corruption campaign against former President Arnoldo Alemán, accused of bilking the country of $100 million during his turn in government. "The separation of state and party is an unfinished task in Nicaragua."

'Cuba-inspired model'

Untangling the web of business interests has been a difficult task.

Moises Martínez, an award-winning investigative journalist for the leading daily La Prensa, says the government secrecy of Nicaragua's "Cuban-inspired model" has made his two-year investigation of Ortega's ALBA business dealings "like trying to dig a tunnel with a hand shovel."

Despite being denied access to government sources and companies such as ALBANISA, journalists have uncovered a web of almost a dozen ALBA business holdings, which Martinez claims has made Ortega and his family one of the most important economic players in the country, on par with Nicaraguan business tycoon Carlos Pellas. "The difference," Martinez says; "is that it took the Pellas family 80 years to accumulate their wealth. Ortega has done it in two years."

Yet unlike most nouveau riche, Ortega and his Sandinista confidants – who first rose to economic power in 1990 during a $1.5 billion land grab known as the "piñata" – still identify as the poor and downtrodden. In fact, Ortega, who has had no other job in his life other than president, claims a net worth of only $200,000, according to his last declaration in 2006.

But Ortega failed to report any property or "piñata" holdings, including his personal compound, which he confiscated in the 1980s and is estimated to be worth around $1 million.

Tight-lipped Sandinistas

The Sandinista leadership is decidedly tight-lipped on the subject of its business dealings. Ortega's wife, Rosario Murillo, spokeswoman for the government, the president and the Sandinista Front, did not respond to the Christian Science Monitor's requests for an interview. And presidential adviser and economist Orlando Núñez also failed to return requests for comment.

President Ortega's brother, however, says the Sandinistas' new capitalist clout and economic rise to power is nothing to be ashamed of.

"If there is a free market, there needs to be a system in which people are free to get rich, so the poor can stop being poor, so the poor can become middle class and the middle class can become business owners and be better off," says retired Gen. Humberto Ortega, adding that the Sandinista revolution broke the economic stranglehold of a small ruling class and allowed the Sandinistas to become "new actors" in today's modern free-market economy, which he defends.

People shouldn't pay too much attention to the Sandinista government's anti-capitalist rhetoric, says General Ortega, because "one thing is discourse for the political clients, and another thing is what the reality shows you are doing."












8) Limbaugh May Have Grounds for Libel Suit, Legal Analysts Say... Democrat/Liberal/Criminal Behavior
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,566983,00.html

October 19, 2009


Rush Limbaugh, who saw his bid to co-own a National Football League team sacked partly because of quotes he purportedly made regarding slavery, could have grounds for a libel suit, legal experts told Foxnews.com.

The conservative radio host was dropped on Wednesday from a group seeking to buy the St. Louis Rams. Dave Checketts, chairman of the St. Louis Blues hockey team, who is leading the effort to buy the NFL team, said Limbaugh was dropped from the group after his involvement in the process became a "complication and a distraction."

Limbaugh's role in the potential sale became the target of liberals on Monday when reports surfaced on news organizations including CNN, MSNBC and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the radio personality once said that slavery "had its merits."

"Slavery built the South," Limbaugh was reported to have said. "I'm not saying we should bring it back. I'm just saying it had its merit. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark."

That purported statement, according to Post-Dispatch columnist Bryan Burwell, came from a 2006 book, "101 People Who Are Really Screwing America," by John Huberman, which does not provide specific details regarding the quote.

Limbaugh has repeatedly denied making the statement. On his radio show on Wednesday, he said, "They continue to spread the false, fabricated quotes and lies, and people continue to comment on them. So I'm faced with the dilemma, what do I do with this?"

One of the things he can do is pick up the ball and run straight to court. Lis Wiehl, a former federal prosecutor and Fox News legal analyst, said Limbaugh has grounds for a libel suit if he can prove he never uttered those words.

"If he didn't say that, his people should come out and say that," Wiehl said. "If it's true he didn't say that, then this is horrible what those organizations are trying to do to slime him."

As a public figure, Wiehl said, Limbaugh would have to prove actual malice and damages -- meaning he'd have to show that the media organizations knowingly and maliciously published that information without regard for the truth, and that he suffered because of it.

"It's a higher standard," she said. "If they actually made up a quote that cost him a deal that he would've otherwise gotten, then yeah, he's got a case."

If the matter revolved around a non-public figure, the potential lawsuit would be a "slam dunk," Wiehl said.

"[Limbaugh] would literally have to prove that whoever put that out did so knowingly in an attempt to hurt him," she continued. "If I were his lawyer, I would argue actual malice. If it's fabricated, what other reason would they make it up?"

Lee Armstrong, a New York-based attorney for the law firm Jones Day, said Limbaugh would have a "very high burden" to meet as a public figure to sue for libel or defamation. But if the quote was indeed fabricated, Armstrong said the radio personality has a potential case.

"These cases typically settle, and they settle not necessarily for money, but maybe the news organization will print a retraction or give Rush the ability to counterbalance what is being said," Armstrong said.

If a lawsuit were to proceed, Armstrong said a potentially fascinating situation would unfold as Limbaugh's attorneys would be granted access to documents on exactly how the story or news segment became published.

"Rush would be able to try and discover whether there's this liberal machinery he's always talking about," Armstrong said. "The whole world would be watching. That's what's interesting."

Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog group, has called on CNN and MSNBC to prove Limbaugh actually made the slavery comment or immediately retract and apologize for their role in disseminating the message.

"The CNN and MSNBC 'news' networks are guilty of promoting outright falsehoods and purposely using fabricated disinformation created by left-wing radicals to destroy a conservative leader," Bozell said in a statement released Wednesday. "There is no grey area here. CNN and MSNBC were given ample time opportunity to come clean, but both are continuing to masquerade malicious lies as credible."

A CNN spokeswoman had not provided a response to questions as of midday Thursday. Calls to MSNBC were not returned and attempts to reach Huberman were unsuccessful.















9) Baby Survives After Stroller Falls Off Australia Train Platform... Amazing/Shocking
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,567482,00.html

October 18, 2009


A six-month-old boy has miraculously survived a train slamming into his stroller after it rolled off an Australian railway platform.

The collision happened as a city-bound service pulled up to Ashburton station, in a Melbourne suburb.

A security video shows the boy's mother taking her hands off the stroller's handles and failing to notice as it slowly edged toward the tracks.

The mom suddenly spots the baby stroller picking up speed and she rushes with outstretched arms to try to save her young child, but the stroller tips over the edge of the platform and the baby slams onto the tracks head first.

Before the boy can be rescued, the train powers past, horrifying the mother and other waiting passengers.

The footage ends with the frantic mom and a man running up to the driver, who has just stopped the 250-ton vehicle.

Australia's Herald Sun said the train ploughed into the stroller, dragging the child along beneath the train's front car.

But the boy was hauled from the tracks with little more than a bump on his head.

Paramedic Jon Wright said the six-month-old just "needed a feed and a nap".

"Luckily, he was strapped into his pram at the time, which probably saved his life. I think the child's extremely lucky," the paramedic told the paper. "Fortunately the train was slowing as it pulled into the station."