Truthout roundup 11/21

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Markets Dive in Last Hour, Carving New Lows
http://www.truthout.org/112108J
Jack Healy, The New York Times: "In a day dominated by fear and uncertainty, financial markets plunged in late trading, carving new lows, in a melee of selling that cut across every sector of the market. Energy companies took the heaviest blows as the price of crude oil fell below $50 a barrel, and financial stocks sank sharply on fears that billions in government aid have done little to cure the financial and credit crises. 'The market can only take so many punches,' said Quincy Krosby, chief investment strategist at The Hartford. 'This market needs a break. It needs clarity. The question is, when and how much?”

Report Says CIA Withheld Information From White House
http://www.truthout.org/112108K
Pamela Hess, The Associated Press: "The senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee Thursday called for a criminal investigation into whether the CIA lied to Congress and withheld information from the Justice Department during its inquiry into the 2001 shoot-down of an American missionary plane by the Peruvian air force with help from a CIA spotter plane. The CIA's Office of General Counsel advised agency managers to avoid producing written reports about the incident 'to avoid both criminal charges against Agency officers and civil liability,' according to unclassified excerpts of an August CIA inspector general report released Thursday by Michigan Rep. Pete Hoekstra."

Rick Kepler The American Worker
http://www.truthout.org/112108L
Rick Kepler, Truthout: "I am an American worker, and you are damn right I want the wealth to be shared and spread. I am talking about the wealth my hard work helped to create, but was taken from me by George Bush's base, the very rich, or as I know them, my corporate bosses. For the past eight years I have watched W.'s and McCain's (Country Club First) base grab the largest share of our country's wealth. Where did they take it from? They took it from my family's pocketbook, and my co-workers' families' pocketbooks. They stole the wealth that I was trying to build for me and my family when they stripped my pension plan from me and told me to invest in a 401k."

Sun Sets on US Power: Report Predicts End of Dominance
http://www.truthout.org/112108M
Julian Borger, The Guardian UK: "The United States' leading intelligence organisation has warned that the world is entering an increasingly unstable and unpredictable period in which the advance of western-style democracy is no longer assured, and some states are in danger of being 'taken over and run by criminal networks.' The global trends review, produced by the National Intelligence Council (NIC) every four years, represents sobering reading in Barack Obama's intray as he prepares to take office in January. The country he inherits, the report warns, will no longer be able to 'call the shots' alone, as its power over an increasingly multipolar world begins to wane."

Titus Levi Bailout or Bust: How to Save the Big Three From Themselves
http://www.truthout.org/112108N
Titus Levi, Truthdig: "The American automobile industry occupies a near-mythic status in the nation's cultural and economic imagination. President-elect Barack Obama echoes the sentiments of many when he says that Detroit is 'the backbone of American manufacturing.' If it is - Detroit's economic importance is great but now occupies a lesser role than it did before it entered a slow-but-steady decline in the 1970s - then it suffers from acute and advanced damage that will require major surgery."

Mukasey Collapses During Address in Washington; Hospitalized Overnight
http://www.truthout.org/112108O
Carrie Johnson and Clarence Williams, The Washington Post: "Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey collapsed last evening while delivering a speech to a prominent legal group and was rushed to George Washington University Hospital. Mukasey remained at the hospital overnight for observation but a Justice Department spokesman said Mukasey had strong vital signs and was 'in good spirits' after the incident, which occurred at an annual Federalist Society gathering. A person who attended the dinner said Mukasey was visibly shaking and perhaps slurring his words before he fell to the floor."

Steve Weissman I'm a Slave to Socialized Medicine
http://www.truthout.org/112108A
Steve Weissman, Truthout: "Growing up in Florida in the 1940s, I saw many of the doctors my family knew fighting against Harry Truman's effort to enact what they called 'Socialized Medicine.' Their immediate target was Sen. Claude Pepper, a New Deal Democrat who supported universal health care. Our doctor friends dubbed him 'Red Pepper' and helped defeat him in the elections of 1948. Yet, for all this early 'fight for freedom,' I now find myself in France enjoying single-payer, socialized medicine, which I would heartily recommend to all Americans."

Bush Tearing Apart Protection for America's Wilderness
http://www.truthout.org/112108B
Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian UK: "George Bush is working at a breakneck pace to dismantle at least 10 major environmental safeguards protecting America's wildlife, national parks and rivers before he leaves office in January."

Bush Signs Jobless Benefits Extension
http://www.truthout.org/112108C
Jim Abrams, The Associated Press: "With no end in sight to economic bad news, President George W. Bush on Friday ensured that millions of laid-off workers will keep getting their unemployment checks as the year-end holidays approach. Bush signed an extension of jobless benefits into law just before 8 a.m., as he was preparing to leave the White House for a morning flight to Lima, Peru, to attend the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum."

Jeremy Scahill This Is Change?
http://www.truthout.org/112108D
Jeremy Scahill, AlterNet: "U.S. policy is not about one individual, and no matter how much faith people place in President-elect Barack Obama, the policies he enacts will be fruit of a tree with many roots. Among them: his personal politics and views, the disastrous realities his administration will inherit, and, of course, unpredictable future crises. But the best immediate indicator of what an Obama administration might look like can be found in the people he surrounds himself with and who he appoints to his Cabinet. And, frankly, when it comes to foreign policy, it is not looking good."

Children Dying in Haiti, Victims of Food Crisis
http://www.truthout.org/112108E
Jonathan M. Katz, The Associated Press: "The 5-year-old teetered on broomstick legs - he weighed less than 20 pounds, even after days of drinking enriched milk. Nearby, a 4-year-old girl hung from a strap attached to a scale, her wide eyes lifeless, her emaciated arms dangling weakly. In pockets of Haiti accessible only by donkey or foot, children are dying of malnutrition - their already meager food supply cut by a series of devastating storms that destroyed crops, wiped out livestock and sent food prices spiraling."