Struggling with mounting debt and rising prices, faced with the toughest economic times since the early 1990s, Americans are selling prized possessions online and at flea markets at alarming rates. 

To meet higher gas, food and prescription drug bills, they are selling off grandmother's dishes and their own belongings. Some of the household purging has been extremely painful — families forced to part with heirlooms. 

For anyone at the CIA or the Pentagon who might be considering moonlighting as a spy, the report offers a warning: 'Since 1990, American spies have been poorly paid.' 

In fact, the proportion of those who received no payment at all for espionage increased from 34 percent before 1980 to 59 percent during the 1980s and to 81 percent since 1990. 

During a press conference on Tuesday, US President George Bush spelled out the threat to Iran contained in last week’s release of CIA intelligence on an alleged Syrian nuclear reactor.

As well as warning Syria and North Korea, which purportedly helped construct the building, he declared that the US was “sending a message to Iran, and the world for that matter, about just how destabilising a nuclear proliferation would be in the Middle East”. 

For months, beleaguered American consumers have defied expert forecasts that they would soon succumb to the pressures of falling home prices, fewer jobs and shrinking pay-checks. Now, they appear to have given in. 

"Your Honor - this is Hamdan - I am speaking to you." 

What followed was a riveting exchange between Judge Keith Allred and Hamdan - an exchange that revealed the enormous distance between the judge's good-faith and compassionate efforts to provide a fair trial in a flawed system, and Hamdan's increasing frustration with a legal system whose rules seem to change with each of his victories.

We have overthrown foreign governments, interfered with elections in foreign countries, invaded foreign lands on a regular basis, and supported all manner of dictators around the globe. The CIA once overthrew the first democratically elected leader of Iran and installed a brutal dictator. What other "black ops" have our spooks been up to over the years? 

Senator Barack Obama broke forcefully on Tuesday with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., in an effort to curtail a drama of race, values, patriotism and betrayal that has enveloped his presidential candidacy at a critical juncture. 

For decades these self-professed saviours of the Western world helped precipitate U.S. foreign policy disasters like the Vietnam War. 

President Bush today blamed Congress for many of the nation's economic woes, charging that lawmakers have blocked his proposals for dealing with problems ranging from soaring gasoline prices to the increasing cost of food.

Any doubt that David Hicks was charged with war crimes for purely political reasons has gone, his father and his lawyer say. 

The former chief prosecutor of the US military commissions at Guantanamo Bay said overnight he would not have pursued Hicks because the case against the Australian was not serious enough.  

BP has reported a 63 percent jump in profits in the first quarter compared to the same period a year ago. The oil company on Tuesday reported a profit of $7.6 Billion compared to $4.4 billion in the first quarter of 2007. First-quarter profit was up 73 percent compared to the previous quarter.

from Crikey ….. 

Iemma's dilemma: privatise or count the Costa

 Alex Mitchell writes: 

The mortgage industry, facing the prospect of tougher regulations for its central role in the housing crisis, has begun an intensive campaign to fight back. 

Bush pokes fun at his successors …..

Referring to Republican candidate John McCain's absence, he said: "He probably wanted to distance himself from me."  

The annual dinner dates back to 1924 and is attended by media personalities, celebrities and politicians.