President-Elect Barack Obama headed to Capitol Hill yesterday (Monday) to meet with House and Senate leaders to push for quick action on his broad economic stimulus package that could cost as much as $775 billion. 

But in a concession to his need for bi-partisan support to pass any package, Obama promised “radical reforms” to impose more control over the federal budget in the future, The New York Times reported.

Republican leaders have already started voicing criticism of the recovery plan, offering their own ideas about what it should contain. Obama aides hope to soften the perception of the plan as an “open checkbook” by focusing more on tax cuts than on spending.

To firm up support among Congressional skeptics worried that Obama was too focused on government spending, Obama’s team revealed the package will devote about 40% to tax cuts, costing roughly $150 billion. The package will

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Ariz. police say they are prepared as War College warns military must prep for unrest; IMF warns of economic riots Phoenix Business Journal - by Mike Sunnucks

A new report by the U.S. Army War College talks about the possibility of Pentagon resources and troops being used should the economic crisis lead to civil unrest, such as protests against businesses and government or runs on beleaguered banks.

“Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security,” said the War College report.

The study says economic collapse, terrorism and loss of legal order are among possible domestic shocks that might require military action within the U.S.

Full article: http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2008/12/15/daily34.html

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TODAY: Kremlin continues to ignore Bush administration, Medvedev optimistic on relations under Obama; US to support Ukraine’s NATO bid at meeting; Russia wants EU inquiry into OSCE accounts of outbreak of war in Georgia; population to drop by 34 million by 2050. The Kremlin is continuing to reject proposals from the US Bush administration on its planned missile defense shield, insisting that it will try to resolve the dispute once Barack Obama takes office. In a televised interview, Dmitry Medvedev announced that he had high hopes for US-Russia relations under President-elect Obama, and reiterated his statement that Russia would abandon plans to deploy missiles near the Polish border if the US abandoned its own missile defense plans in the region. The Pentagon General in charge of missile defense is anxious that the US keep to its ...

This bit comes from Rose Gottemoeller in the Moscow Times: Obama and Medvedev would do well early in their relationship to make some policy decisions that would sharply break with Cold War patterns. For example, although Obama would not have assumed command of the U.S. military when Russia's naval flotilla completes its exercises off Venezuela in mid-November, he could suggest that the Pentagon invite the Russian commanders to stop off at Central Command in Florida before their return to Russia. The purpose of the stop would be to discuss urgent issues that are engaging both navies, such as the piracy that is running rampant off Somalia. And Medvedev, although he would have to push back against Kremlin hard-liners, could recommend that Moscow and Washington have some urgent issues to work on together with Tbilisi. Smuggling through South Ossetia has been a persistent problem, and it has at times involved that most ...

Talk of a writer with a lieutenant-colonel Grigory Pasko, journalist Если Вы хотите прочитать оригинал данной статьи на русском языке, нажмите сюда. In the writer Zakhar Prilepin’s essay "Поедем на авто, несогласный?" ["Shall we take a drive, dissident?"] (the book "Я пришел из России" ["I came from Russia"], Limbus Press, the year 2008) is described the dialogue of the author with an employee of the FSB (the feesbeshnik [FSB-nik—Trans.] speaks first): “Look here, you’re a famous person – but you’re not afraid that they’ll use you?” “Who can use me, if I myself don’t want this? The CIA? The Pentagon? A masonic lodge?” “Well, something could be offered to you too…” “Nothing can be offered to me, I have everything. Things can only be taken away from me.” Further on, the author comes to the conclusion that he and his interlocutor ...

Concerned about the recent decline in stock prices, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, yesterday (Tuesday) called for the creation of European sovereign wealth funds. The funds would be virtual carbon copies of the state-owned investment vehicles that have sprung up from Beijing to Abu Dhabi to disperse their respective nations’ cash reserves in foreign assets.

Addressing the European Parliament, President Sarkozy implored his European contemporaries to embrace the current period of economic upheaval as an opportunity to restructure the global financial system. According to the Daily Telegraph, he also articulated the concern of many Western authorities that sovereign wealth funds, located primarily in Asia and the Middle East, could use their massive cash reserves to scoop up key foreign assets at extraordinarily low valuations.

“Stock markets are at historic lows. I do not want European citizens to wake up a few months from now and discover that European companies belong to

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The Mogambo Guru says the real motive for Hank Paulson's bailout bill was that the government needs the money for its lavish spending requirements. And what the government needs, the Fed will print. Of course, this will eventually bring down the dollar, and send gold soaring...

Make no mistake: we are in uncharted territory. Hank Paulson wants $700 billion of taxpayer’s money to buy up bad debt and ‘rescue’ the markets.Some lawmakers strongly opposed to the plan.

“The free market for all intents and purposes is dead in America,” said Senator Jim Bunning, Republican of Kentucky, on Friday.

Justice Litle says the plan is a minefield for investors. He says there are five things you need to know about the government bailout and what it means for your portfolio.

This from Taipan Publishing:

1) The bailout is one of staggeringly massive proportions.

As I write to you in the wee hours of Monday morning, prior to my transatlantic flight, the number being bandied about for the size of the bailout is $700 billion. Keep in mind, too, that this is an opening number. It doesn’t necessarily include relief for upside-down homeowners, strapped consumers, foreign banks or many other potential “extras” that …

The Los Angeles Times has an interesting piece about the testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee by Daniel Fried and Eric Edelman, debating the U.S. response to the Russian invasion of Georgia. While Democratic Senators are criticizing the government's weak response, there are indications that the Pentagon is willing to allow Russia de facto control over Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russia Today has already produced a gleeful propaganda piece declaring that Washington is "divided" over Georgia ... yes, the inconveniences of democracy are not well known in Russian foreign policy circles, but it would be a mistake to believe that there isn't consensus on the basic opposition to this war. Fried dismissed charges that condemnation of Russia's action was too modest a response, saying the Kremlin was facing diplomatic isolation. "You're quite right that a couple of communiques that use the word 'condemn,' by themselves, ...

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GeoEye, which went public in September 2006, has expanded dramatically

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