From Air Combat Command USAF website: Angel Thunder is a combat search and rescue task force exercise designed to test theater spin-up capabilities and examine the integration of all Air Force assets in mission planning procedures and mission execution.
Arizona Daily Star Foreign Troops Take Part in “Drill” at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson
To troops downed in combat, few sights are sweeter than the approach of military rescuers. In a few weeks, Tucson will be at the center of efforts to speed up that lifesaving process.Personnel from around the globe will converge at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base from Dec. 1 to Dec. 12 for the largest rescue exercise of its kind. The effort, dubbed Angel Thunder, will involve the U.S. Army and Air Force, troops from Germany, Chile, Colombia and observers from Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Pakistan.
Several non-military U.S. agencies such as the State and Justice departments, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office, also will take part in the drills, which aim to smooth interaction between military branches, allied nations and civilian agencies. With about 450 personnel involved, Angel Thunder “is the most complex and largest Department of Defense personnel- recovery exercise to date,” said a news release from Air Combat Command in Langley, Va. D-M will be at the hub of the effort, but most of the mock rescue action will take place elsewhere in Arizona and in New Mexico.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock Global Economic Analysis.blogspot.com
The ticking time bomb of over-promised, underfunded public pension plans has finally exploded. Here are a few headlines to consider:
Pension Fund of San Diego/Pension’s loss may add to San Diego’s money woes
Economic crisis hits IMRF, tax increases might be needed
Pension Crisis Looming In Canada
NY state pension fund down 20 pct since April
US public pension funds face big losses
The above is just a random sampling of hundreds of articles about pension plan woes. 40% of pension plans are underfunded and that assumes future returns of 8% annually. Good luck with that. Now think how bad things will be if the S&P drops to 600. Go one step further and think about what might happen if the US heads into an economic slump similar to Japan. More
In a desperate bid to help U.S. banks recapitalize, Washington is dropping its inhibitions and reaching out to Canadian financial institutions to gauge their willingness to participate in rescue operations. The Federal Reserve has activated a back channel that puts the central bank in direct contact with chief executives at Canada’s largest banks and insurers, according to a person familiar with the dialogue. They are approaching “banks with major assets in the U.S. like [Toronto-Dominion Bank] and Royal [Bank of Canada], because when they have a bailout situation they want everyone who is a potential buyer to look at it,” the source said.
The ongoing conversations between the U.S. central bank and Canadian executives reflects the challenge facing Washington as it seeks to address both short-term liquidity and permanent capital needs of financial institutions crippled by more than $500-billion in losses and limited access to financing. The communications have included phone calls from Fed officials pitching potential sales of assets of U.S. financial companies and at least one intensive discussion of a major rescue operation, according to people familiar with the contacts. More
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
The twin missives more or less sum up the dramatic change in mood sweeping financial markets since it became evident that the entire bloc of rich OECD countries has succumbed to the delayed effects of the credit crisis. Japan contracted by 0.6pc in the second quarter, Germany by 0.5pc, France and Italy by 0.3pc. Spain recalled the cabinet last week for an emergency summit. New Zealand and Denmark are in recession. Iceland contracted at a catastrophic 3.7pc in the second quarter. “The whole decoupling thesis has started to come apart at the seams,” said David Bloom, currency chief at HSBC. “Canada is frozen over. We have Arctic conditions in Sweden, and the UK is falling off the white cliffs of Dover.” The US fiscal stimulus package that kept spending afloat in the second quarter is running out fast. There is nothing yet to replace it. The export boom cannot keep adding juice as the global crunch hits. My fear is that the US will tip into a second, deeper leg of the downturn, setting off a wave of savage job cuts. This will start to feel more like a real depression. More
channelnewsasia.com
OTTAWA - A new case of mad cow disease has been detected in the western Canadian province of Alberta, the government’s Food Inspection Agency announced Friday. The degenerative ailment known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was discovered in a six-year-old slaughtered cow, but authorities offered assurances that no part of the animal has entered the food chain. [Yeah, right] It was the 14th case of mad cow disease discovered in Canada since 2003. BSE is the suspected cause of a similar brain-destroying illness in humans called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). - AFP/vm
This Dobbs clip discusses the new North American common currency called the “Amero”. The NAU progress report claims everything is ontrack for the Union to go into effect in 2010. Dobbs reports that the North American union will be an Orwellian Brave New World. The fall of dollar will pave the way for the implementation of the Amero, resulting in the loss of sovereignty for three countries, and economic control and enslavement over its populations.
July 4 (Bloomberg) — European stocks dropped, capping their fifth weekly decline, on concern banks will post more writedowns and near-record oil will curb airlines’ profits. Canada’s benchmark index and most shares in Brazil and Asia also fell. The fifth straight weekly drop is the longest losing streak since a seven- week slump ending Jan. 25. “Markets around the world have had a rough ride and news flow remains challenging,” said Andreas Nigg, head of international equities Vontobel Asset Management in Zurich, which oversees $39 billion. “The banks are not in good shape, and it will get harder to raise capital. Oil is still going up. It’s like a tax that keeps getting worse.” More
Catherine Ford, Calgary Herald
There are at least 400 movies and an uncountable number of television shows on about 200 VHS tapes stored in my den. They constitute what the federal government would refer to as a “permanent library.” Should the amendment to Canada’s copyright law pass without change, I will apparently be branded a thief for keeping these tapes and will have made Brigitte into a criminal — the receiver of “stolen” goods. The woman who cleans my house, does windows, recycles the newspapers, plastic bags and cardboard, and also collects all of our old magazines, books and videotapes to donate to various groups would not be pleased to find herself on the other side of the law because I choose to give her things I no longer need, rather than tossing them in the garbage. More
40 years after Vietnam, a new generation of Americans is hiding out in Canada to avoid fighting in Iraq. They await a key decision by their Canadian hosts. The rate of desertion from the US armed forces has been rising every year since the start of the Iraq war in 2003. Most deserters remain in the United States, hiding out from police. But some choose exile.
An estimated 200 US deserters are living in Canada. Forty or so have joined up with a group of Canadian activists called “War Resisters”, which does not see the former soldiers as deserters, but rather as resisters to a war they consider unjust. The group includes many so-called “draft-dodgers”, the 50,000 Americans who moved to Canada 40 years ago to avoid being sent to Vietnam.
Many of the deserters have asked for refugee status, but have had their requests turned down by Canada’s Immigration Board – and their appeals to the Canadian Supreme Court have also been rejected. Immigration Minister Diane Finlay justifies the rejections on grounds that the Americans were not drafted but volunteered for service. Read More
Photo Jacob Bøtter Jpost.com
Canadan authorities have launched an investigation into Facebook after four University of Ottawa law students complained the site breaches the law by disclosing personal information to advertisers without obtaining proper consent. The students allege in a complaint lodged Friday that the popular social networking web site has committed 22 violations.
“There’s definitely some significant shortcomings with Facebook’s privacy settings and with their ability to protect users,” said Harley Finkelstein, 24, one of the students behind the complaint. Canadian law mandates that information including address, sexual preference, birthdate and school attended cannot be disclosed without the user’s consent. On Facebook, users must specifically change their settings to keep that information private.
“If a 14-year-old kid in Toronto decides to join Facebook … and he decides to join the Toronto network, does he really know that everyone on that network - by default - will have access to his personal information?” Facebook refuted the claims, saying the complaint ignores key elements of the company’s policy.
OTTAWA (Reuters)
Canadians should avoid unlicensed drugs that claim to improve sexual performance because they could cause problems such as loss of consciousness, prolonged erections and chest pain, the health ministry said on Friday. Health Canada issued the warning in a release about a product called Desire, which was found to contain the prescription drug phentolamine — something not indicated on the label.
“Health Canada advises consumers not to use Desire or any other unauthorized products promoted to increase sexual performance that are advertised as ‘all natural’, as such products may contain undeclared prescription drugs that may pose serious risks to health,” it said in a statement. More
You may never have heard of bisphenol-A (BPA), but it’s probably in your body. It was in 93 percent of 2,517 Americans age 6 and over, tested by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. BPA is in baby bottles, pacifiers, sippy cups, food containers, water bottles, dental sealants, the liners of food cans, and hundreds of household goods. Six million pounds of BPA are produced in the U.S. each year.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a report stating that BPA may be a toxic chemical. And The U.S. government’s National Toxicology Program expressed “concern” about BPA, even though research links BPA to a host of illnesses in rats. Despite this, the FDA has still not established any restrictions on the use of (BPA) in baby bottles.
Wal-mart reported that instead of removing baby bottles made with BPA, they will phase them out. U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, a Democrat from New York, has stated he will introduce a bill on Monday calling for a ban on all products containing BPA in the U.S. Read more
