A record US budget gap and the rise of dynamic developing economies like China suggest the dollar, down over 20 percent since 2002 on a trade-weighted basis, has further to fall. Of course, the dollar comprises some two-thirds of global reserves and will remain dominant in most holdings, as attempts to dump it would destroy the value of central bank portfolios.

But with the speed of reserve accumulation increasing after a crisis-induced lull late last year, policy makers can choose TO PARK MORE NEW CASH IN EUROS AND YEN without having to sell existing dollar assets. "I think 2009 will be remembered as a watershed moment for currencies," said Neil Mellor, strategist at BNY Mellon, which has some $20 trillion in assets under custody. "I don't think there will be an imminent move, but it is quite clear THERE'S A PLAN TO SHIFT RESERVES TO A MORE BALANCED PORTFOLIO."

Unfortunately, Speaker Pelosi's 2,032-page government takeover of health care does just that. On line 17, p. 110, section 222 under "Abortions for which Public Funding is Allowed" the Health and Human Services Secretary is given the authority to determine when abortion is allowed under the government-run plan. The Speaker's plan also requires that at least one insurance plan offered in the Exchange covers abortions.

WHAT IS EVEN MORE ALARMING IS THAT A MONTHLY ABORTION PREMIUM WILL BE CHARGED OF ALL ENROLLEES in the government-run plan. It's right there on line 16, page 96, section 213, under "Insurance Rating Rules." The premium will be paid into a US Treasury account - and these federal funds will be used to pay for the abortion services.

A majority of Americans believe that health care plans should not be mandated to provide elective abortion coverage, and a majority of Americans do not believe government health care plans should include abortion coverage. Currently, federal appropriations bills include language known as the Hyde Amendment that prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for elective abortions under the Medicare and Medicaid programs, while another provision, known as the Smith Amendment, prohibits federal funding of abortion under the federal employees' health benefits plan.

Speaker Pelosi's 2,032-page health care monstrosity is an affront to the American people and drastically moves away from current policy. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DESERVE MORE FROM THEIR GOVERNMENT THAN BEING FORCED TO PAY FOR ABORTION.

The bill approved by the Environment and Public Works Committee will now become one of several initiatives in the Senate aimed at attacking global warming. But they are unlikely to produce legislation that would be voted on by the full Senate until next year at the earliest.

As an influential moderate Democrat, Senator Max Baucus laid out changes he would seek, including a weaker carbon-reduction target. Other Midwestern and Southern senators from states heavily reliant on coal will seek their own changes, which could upset liberals now supporting the bill.

India's decision TO EXCHANGE $6.7BN FOR GOLD equivalent to 8 per cent of world annual mine production sent the strongest signal yet that Asian countries were moving away from the US currency. The purchase by New Delhi's Reserve Bank from the International Monetary Fund pushed gold prices TO A RECORD $1,090.90 per troy ounce, up 2.6 per cent on the day, as traders bet that other central banks would also become buyers.

Pranab Mukherjee, India's finance minister, said the acquisition reflected the power of an economy that laid claim to the fifth-largest global foreign reserves: "We have money to buy gold. We have enough foreign exchange reserves." He contrasted India's strength with weakness elsewhere: "EUROPE COLLAPSED AND NORTH AMERICA COLLAPSED."

"This is a landmark trade," said Jonathan Spall a director at Barclays Capital and a gold specialist. "Central banks are conservative institutions and India's move is a sign for other central banks and sovereign wealth funds that were contemplating buying gold." New Delhi's acquisition came months after CHINA REVEALED IT HAD ALMOST DOUBLED ITS GOLD RESERVES IN THE PAST SIX YEARS.

ONLY TWICE IN JERUSALEM'S HISTORY HAS IT SERVED AS A NATIONAL CAPITAL. The first time was as the capital of the two Jewish Commonwealths during the First and Second Temple periods, as described in the Bible, reinforced by archaeological evidence and numerous ancient documents. The second time is in modern times as the capital of the State of Israel. IT HAS NEVER SERVED AS AN ARAB CAPITAL FOR THE SIMPLE REASON THAT THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A PALESTINIAN ARAB STATE.

The rhetoric by Arab leaders on behalf of the Palestinians rings hollow. Arabs never established a Palestinian state when the UN in 1947 recommended to partition Palestine, and to establish "an Arab and a Jewish state" (not a Palestinian state, it should be noted). Nor did the Arabs recognize or establish a Palestinian state during the two decades prior to the Six-Day War when the West Bank was under Jordanian control and the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian control; nor did the Palestinian Arabs clamour for autonomy or independence during those years under Jordanian and Egyptian rule.

So much for facts and accuracy.

Full article

Retailers lost $36.3 billion to theft in 2008, up from $34.8 billion in 2007. While no projections are available yet for 2009, signs are that the problem is getting worse, says Joseph LaRocca, senior adviser on asset protection of the National Retail Federation (NRF). FEWER PEOPLE ARE BEING DETAINED in stores for shoplifting, but when they are stopped, they're more likely to run and even attack store employees, says LaRocca.

"SHOPLIFTERS ARE GETTING MORE AGGRESSIVE," he says. "They're fighting, they're abusive, they're running... It's a very disturbing trend." LaRocca attributes this escalation to the rise of shoplifting rings, gangs that steal large quantities of products for resale. These thieves are the reason you often find razor blades under lock and key in your local drugstore, says LaRocca, because small items that can be easily resold are a favorite target of pro shoplifters.

"They're very organized, and they are very skilled," says LaRocca. "They'll steal thousands of dollars in five minutes." They may even open entire stores stocked with stolen products, he says.

A test case relating to employment law is working its way through the system in Germany. The case - the Mangold case - concerns a finding against Germany by the ECJ over age discrimination. Should the German court decide the ECJ went too far and reverse the Mangold decision, IT COULD CHANGE THE BALANCE OF POWER BETWEEN THE EU AND MEMBER STATES.

"I'm not sure the implications of this have so far sunk in in Brussels. The German judges are due to pronounce by the end of the year."

The Sun and the Express look at the loss of powers from Britain to the EU as a result of ratification of the Treaty, with the Express quoting Open Europe's Lorraine Mullally saying, "UNELECTED EU JUDGES WILL SEE THEIR POWERS BOLSTERED and more and more decisions affecting our everyday lives will be TAKEN BY BUREAUCRATS BEHIND CLOSED DOORS IN BRUSSELS."

In a speech in Brussels yesterday, Vice-President of the German Constitutional Court Andreas Vosskuhle said that "the European Court of Justice can be considered to be the motor of European integration".

The two-day summit will be held at the Vatican and will include other Catholic politicians from all over the world, including German chancellor Angela Merkel, US vice president Joe Biden, former Spanish PM Jose Maria Aznar, and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Church officials have been quietly working on the conference, which will be called 'Witnesses of Christ in the Political Community', for several months.

The former Prime Minister famously converted to Catholicism after he left Downing Street in 2007. He has met current Pope Benedict XVI and he has also set up The Tony Blair Faith Foundation. Two months ago he told the Communion and Liberation Committee in Rimini, Italy, that switching to Catholicism was like 'coming home' and is now 'where my heart is.'

Vatican sources said the timing of the meeting would be pushed forward to early next year given the decision earlier this week by the European Court of Human Rights that Italy should remove crucifixes from classrooms. A senior Vatican official said: 'There is growing alarm within the Vatican and especially the Pope that not enough prominence is being given to basic Christian and family values by governments.'

'This has been further increased by this week's ruling by THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS on the display of crucifixes in Italian classrooms - it is outrageous that such an institution could interfere in the cultural heritage of Italy in such a way.' The landmark decision caused outrage amongst Italian politicians and was also slammed by the Vatican who described it as 'wrong, short sighted and regretful.'

But it turns out that the book money is small potatoes compared to what Gore could earn from his various eco-friendly investments. As a partner at Silicon Valley venture capital heavyweight Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, Gore is poised to reap hundreds of millions from investments in the companies that will benefit from the government's increased emphasis on green technology. According to The New York Times's John Broder, Gore could become the world's first "carbon billionaire."

Gore has been one of the most outspoken critics of global warming and a powerful advocate of carbon-reducing measures. As such, he has become a hero of the left - a man revered for warning Americans to curb their carbon footprint and reduce their impact on the Earth.

"The bottom line is that business and markets cannot operate in isolation from society and the environment - we need 'sustainable capitalism,'" Gore said. AND GORE HAS BEEN PRACTICING A PARTICULARLY PROFITABLE FORM OF CAPITALISM OF LATE.

The Chancellor confirmed that the Government would pump an extra £25.5 billion into Royal Bank of Scotland, and declared that it was the only way to keep the business alive.

Taxpayers have poured a total of £53.5 billion into RBS, including the £20 billion part-nationalisation last year and another £8 billion that was set aside as insurance against further trouble in the future. In total, the Government has put £74 billion of taxpayers' money into the banks, including RBS, Lloyds and HBOS, since the start of the financial crisis last year.

It is likely that the new bail-out will have to be funded by government borrowing, which could only be repaid through swingeing cuts to public services or substantial tax rises over the coming years. However, despite consumers picking up the bill for yet more billions for the banks, experts said that the money would still not be enough to get them to increase lending to struggling home owners and businesses.

The bail-out of RBS, which was driven to the brink of collapse in 2008 after a series of reckless investments, now ranks as the biggest in the world. It means the Government owns 84 per cent of what was, at the peak of the finance bubble, the largest bank in the world.

In total, the British Government's exposure to RBS now stands at more than £250 billion, because in addition to supplying funds to keep it afloat, the Government has also underwritten many of its so-called toxic assets.

Mr Gorbachev is credited in the West for ignoring hardliners who advised him to guarantee the Soviet Union's future by crushing a growing wave of dissent in Eastern Bloc countries which led to the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. When asked by a reporter why he did not use force to halt the demonstrations, HE SAID IT WOULD HAVE SPARKED A CATASTROPHIC SET OF EVENTS AND EVEN A WORLD WAR.

"If the Soviet Union had wished, there would have been nothing of the sort (the fall of the Wall) and no German unification. But what would have happened? A catastrophe or World War Three," said Mr Gorbachev, 78.

"My policy was open and sincere, a policy aimed at using democracy and not spilling blood. But this cost me very dear, I can tell you that," he said. Most Russians revile Mr Gorbachev for his weakness in allowing the collapse of the Soviet Union and the loss of Moscow's global empire. The fall of the Berlin Wall – a symbol of the Cold War divide of Europe – was one of the nails in the coffin of the Soviet Union, which collapsed at the end of 1991.

The treaty's supporters say it will allow the EU to operate more efficiently and give it greater influence in world affairs. But critics say it will cede too much more of Britain's sovereignty to Brussels. Vaclav Klaus, the President of the Czech Republic, yesterday signed the Lisbon Treaty, ending eight years of resistance to its attempt to give more power to the EU.

The Czechs are the last of the 27 EU states to sign the treaty, and their move forced the Conservatives to abandon their pledge to hold a British referendum on Lisbon. William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, said it was "a bad day for British democracy". David Cameron, the Conservative leader, will today set out plans for an alternative Tory pledge to renegotiate several parts of Britain's EU membership, trying to win back control over social and employment laws.

Gordon Brown hailed the Czech signature as "a historic step," and European leaders said it will create a more powerful EU. Despite the scale of the changes the treaty makes, THE BRITISH PEOPLE HAVE NEVER BEEN DIRECTLY CONSULTED ON THE DOCUMENT, which was ratified in a Commons vote and signed by Mr Brown in 2007.

Equally important, Wright is being introduced in the video by Robert W. McChesney, co-founder of Free Press, an organization which has come under scrutiny for its links to the Obama Administration and dedication to the transformation and control of the private media in the US In an article in the socialist Monthly Review, "Journalism, Democracy, and Class Struggle," McChesney declared, "Our job is to make media reform part of our broader struggle for democracy, social justice, AND, DARE WE SAY IT, SOCIALISM."

McChesney co-authored another piece for Monthly Review, "A New New Deal Under Obama?," in which he said, "In the end, THERE IS NO REAL ANSWER BUT TO REMOVE BRICK BY BRICK THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM ITSELF, REBUILDING THE ENTIRE SOCIETY ON SOCIALIST PRINCIPLES."

Last Friday night, I gave an address to the Christian Embassy banquet in northern Virginia. The title of my talk was, "Train Wreck: The Coming Collision of US-Israeli Relations." With deep concern and regret, I noted that just as the Iranian nuclear threat is worsening, WE ARE CURRENTLY WITNESSING THE WORST STRAINS IN US-ISRAEL RELATIONS IN MEMORY.

* Before January, polls showed 88% of Israelis believed President Bush was pro-Israel.

* In May, a Jerusalem Post poll found that only 31% of Israelis believed President Obama was pro-Israel.

* By August, a Jerusalem Post poll found only 4% of Israelis believed President Obama was pro-Israel.

Israel's plummeting confidence that the White House truly understands their security needs and will stand with them as a faithful ally is the result of numerous actions and statements by the President and his senior advisors.

On April 14th of this year, I said on the Glenn Beck show that I believed WE WERE WITNESSING A COMING "TRAIN WRECK" IN US-ISRAELI RELATIONS over the Iran and Palestinian issues. The situation has only worsened since then.