contributions

By Alan Fein
(AXcess News) New York - The US Commerce Department economic report, released Friday, shows that the US economy grew at the slowest pace in three years, rising only 1.1 percent in the last quarter of 2005.
The economic Report states that for the year, the US economy grew 3.5 percent in 2005 overall.
The nation’s growth in gross domestic product (GDP) rose a brisk 4.1 percent in the third quarter, in sharp contrast to the 1.1 percent growth in GDP in the fourth-quarter that (…)

United States economic growth slowed to its weakest rate in three years in the last quarter of 2005 ending the year with an overall expansion of 3.5%, down from the 4.2% of 2004.
The US economy grew at an annual rate of 1.1% from October to December, compared with 4.1% in the previous three months. The drop was caused by reduced consumer spending amid soaring fuel prices, while the government also tightened budget expenditure post-Hurricane Katrina.
However economists predicted the drop (…)

Steven Soderbergh’s new flick just might be the end of the megaplex.
By Monica Mehta
Q: A movie you want to see is releasing today in simultaneous formats. Would you rather:
1. See it in your living room, where it will air on pay-per-view cable TV at 9 p.m. and 11 p.m.? 2. Go to a theater and see it on a big screen? 3. Wait four days, when it comes out on DVD, and buy and see it then?
Today, the movie industry will have America’s answer to this question.
It’s the first time a (…)

A new year brings new hope. And in this year it would be nice to see in Washington a new commitment to fiscal restraint and a resolve to bequeath a solvent government and robust economy to future generations.
To listen to many Republican lawmakers, a move in that direction is underway. In the final hours before it wrapped up on Dec. 21, the Senate approved a five-year, $40 billion deficit reduction package. The measure, set to pass the House of Representatives early this year, would cut (…)

In response to the news that the Pentagon has illegally spied on the Northeastern Ohio Anti-War Coalition (NOAC), Clevelanders will gather outside the Federal Building at 1240 East Ninth Street on Monday, January 30 at 7:30 AM to conduct a spoof "spy-in" on the U.S. government. Participants will dress in Hollywood-inspired spy outfits and pretend to spy on the Federal Building with cameras, binoculars and other gear often associated with espionage activities.
A partial database from the (…)

To President Bush,
I find it very interesting that whenever you need a distraction such as the illegal eaves-dropping issue, up pops Osama bin Laden. While you once said of him that you would capture him “dead or alive” which turned into, “I do not know where he is, he is not important and is not our priority” he has become your ally, that is if he is still alive and where Americans will run around as if the sky is falling. Me, I just shrug my shoulders since I feel that this government (…)

Washington — The investigation into Jack Abramoff, the disgraced Republican lobbyist, took a provocative new turn Thursday when the Justice Department said the chief prosecutor in the inquiry would step down next week because he had been nominated to a federal judgeship by President Bush.
The prosecutor, Noel Hillman, is chief of the department’s Office of Public Integrity, and the move ends his involvement in an investigation that has reached into the administration as well as into the (…)

1) The Northern Alliance Leader, Ahmed Shah Massoud , is buried - paving the way for installation of an oil company company executive , Hamid Karzai. The likey perps : British intelligence and Pakistan’s ISI
2) The head of Pakistani intelligence arrives in Washington on this day , after wiring 100k to Mohamed Atta. An asset of British intelligence , Omar Saeed Sheikh, facilitates the transaction.
3) Sir David Manning ,Tony Blair’s top foreign policy advisor, meets with Deputy Sec. of (…)

WASHINGTON - Despite persistent disillusionment with the war in Iraq, a majority of Americans supports taking military action against Iran if that country continues to produce material that can be used to develop nuclear weapons, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found.
The poll, conducted Sunday through Wednesday, found that 57% of Americans favor military intervention if Iran’s Islamic government pursues a program that could enable it to build nuclear arms.
Support for military (…)

The Getty Villa, home to thousands of antiquities, reopens to the public in California this weekend after a $275m renovation. But the unveiling has been overshadowed by a series of allegations involving art theft and corruption.
Andrew Gumbel reports from Los Angeles
Under other circumstances, the reopening of the original J Paul Getty museum in Los Angeles - a painstakingly reproduced ancient Roman villa on the bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean - might have been cause for universal (…)