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I have never been to Illinois before, but NATO and G8 summits, to take place between May 15-22 are calling my name. My blog is totally self-funded, and I don't have a real job, and not collecting any government anything needless to say, so I need to do all my work on a limited budget. All I really need is internet access and a place to work quietly, and since I'm not a grungy liberal, to shower and sleep (a couch would do in a pinch.) A place with easy access to where these events will take place is strongly...

(CNN) -- Leaders at the Group of Eight summit in France expressed their support for democracy activists in the Middle East and North Africa on Friday but stopped short of pledging money to support them. The G8 leaders raised the possibility that multilateral development banks could provide more than $20 billion to support reforms in Egypt and Tunisia, where popular uprisings dislodged authoritarian rulers. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the amount of aid could reach $40 billion. In addition to the possible $20 billion, he cites about $10 billion in bilateral commitments not mentioned in the G8 summit's communique and...

DEAUVILLE, France – Rich countries and international lenders are aiming to provide $40 billion in funding for Arab nations trying to establish true democracies, officials said at a Group of Eight summit Friday. Officials didn't fully detail the sources of the money, or how it would be used, but the thrust was clearly to underpin democracy in Egypt and Tunisia — where huge public uprisings ousted autocratic regimes this year — and put pressure on repressive rulers in Syria and Libya. The overall message from President Barack Obama and the other G-8 leaders meeting in this Normandy resort appeared to...

While Republicans and Democrats in Washington dueled over job creation in America, President Obama was overseas in the French resort-town of Deauville working to spur job creation in the Middle East--among a laundry list of other international matters. With the so-called "Arab Spring" heating up into what some are now calling the "Arab Summer," leaders of the Group of Eight, more commonly known as the G8, have committed to help grow free economies and jobs in the region. Yet with several countries in the Middle East still engaged in serious conflict and uncertain political futures, the prospect for noticeable employment...

PARIS (Reuters) – France failed on Tuesday to persuade its G8 partners to support its push for a no-fly zone over Libya, a setback to any chances of swift action to halt Muammar Gaddafi's advance against rebel forces. In a blow too to France's efforts to use the crisis in Libya to reassert its leadership in international diplomacy, the Group of Eight powers made no mention of a no-fly zone over the North African nation in a communique wrapping up their talks. The Libyan crisis dominated the first meeting of France's G8 presidency, but Germany and Russia blocked flight restrictions...

HONOLULU — French President Nicolas Sarkozy will visit Washington next month and hold talks with his US counterpart Barack Obama on January 10, the White House said Friday. "I can confirm" the French leader's visit, White House spokesman Tommy Vietor told AFP, without providing further details. The Elysee presidential palace announced Thursday that Sarkozy would visit the US capital to discuss the agendas of next year's G8 and G20 summits with Obama. France currently holds the rotating presidency of the G20 forum of the world's 20 largest economies, and in 2011 will chair the G8, comprised of six major Western...

THE safety of Tony Blair, George Bush and other world leaders at the G8 summit in Canada could have been jeopardised when a secret security document detailing their every movewas left in a busy picnic area close to the summit headquarters. To the horror of the Canadian Mounties and American Secret Service, the 134-page spiral-bound document, marked “confidential”, was left lying open on a large boulder in front of the main security barrier at the entrance to the luxury resort in the Rockies where the G8 leaders were holding their two-day meeting. It was found by The Times as British...

Lutheran Bishop Joins Faith Leaders to Challenge G-8 and G-20 10-180-JD WASHINGTON (ELCA) -- The convening and working together of interfaith leaders serves as a "powerful symbol" in contributing to a better future for the world, according to the Rev. Jon V. Anderson, bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Southwestern Minnesota Synod, Redwood Falls. Anderson attended the World Religions Summit in Winnipeg, Manitoba, June 21-23. "I wanted to bring our distinctive Lutheran voice to this gathering of Christians and people of many faiths," Anderson said. More than 90 faith leaders and youth delegates from over 20 countries met at...

The question at the G8 and G20 summit put to President Barry Hussein Soetoro was, “Are there steps that your administration can take now to build confidence that the U.S. will in fact meet its deficit reduction targets( goals) for the medium and long term,” the President careened along on a 4min 18 second long rambling fantastical response (because it wasn’t an answer) that had no basis in fiscal reality. (see 4:19min video) Yeah right, Mr. President why don’t we start by first having your Democrat controlled Congress do the fiscally responsible thing and pass a budget resolution as required...

It's always the right time to ignore Paul Krugman, the New York Times columnist, Nobel Laureate and four-time Latin Grammy nominee whose drink-yourself-sober advice on handling the debt crisis is so sharply at odds with reality. Of late, Krugman has had his Irish up at Europeans who are resisting the Obama Administration's plan to continue spending hundreds of billions on financial stimulus. (Not that he agrees with the administration, which Krugman has been arguing for the last 18 months should be spending trillions, not mere billions, on stimulus.) And in the case of Bundesbank president Axel Weber -- whom Krugman...

Our allies are moving to cut spending and debt at the same time Obama urges them to party on! President Barack Obama, right, stands beside French President Nicolas Sarkozy and other G8 Leaders during a family photo with African Outreach Leaders during the G8 Summit at the Deerhurst Resort in Hunstville, Ontario, Canada, Friday, June 25, 2010.With U.S. Gross Domestic Product being revised significantly downward and our high unemployment rate well above that of our nearest neighbor Canada, you would think Obama might listen to how our friends and allies are responding to the global economic crisis. But it seems...

Holed up with seven other global leaders in the woods of Muskoka, Canada, President Barack Obama gave the White House press corps the slip last night. The president is attending the G-8 and G-20 summits with his global counterparts this weekend. The G-8 began yesterday in Muskoka in Huntsville, Ont., and ends today. The G-20 is in Toronto, about 150 miles away, and starts this afternoon. Last night, the White House sent the press corps — which by agreement stays close to the president in order to report on any incident — back to Toronto, leaving the president 150 miles...

The Prime Minister last night defiantly rejected U.S. criticism of the decision of Britain to tackle deficits with massive cuts and tax rises. David Cameron heightened tensions with President Barack Obama over spending cuts by calling for all major economies to take 'unavoidable' belt-tightening steps as quickly as possible. As the pair prepared to meet for the first time on the world stage, the Prime Minister went out of his way to point out that Britain had demonstrated with this week's emergency Budget that 'we will start to live within our means' He said all G20 countries had to 'start...

World leaders "believe absolutely" that Israel may decide to take military action against Iran to prevent the latter from acquiring nuclear weapons, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Saturday. “Iran is not guaranteeing a peaceful production of nuclear power [so] the members of the G-8 are worried and believe absolutely that Israel will probably react preemptively,” Berlusconi told reporters following talks with other Group of Eight leaders north of Toronto...

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan are expected to ratchet up diplomatic efforts to garner international support for a UN reprimand of North Korea during this weekend’s G-20 Summit in Toronto. Seoul has asked the UN Security Council to officially condemn Pyongyang for the fatal March 26 attack on South Korean warship Cheonan, an accusation Pyongyang has furiously denied. After two Koreas held dueling briefings to push their own versions of the story to member countries at the UN Security Council, negotiations came to a temporary halt this week as the ambassadors of the member countries...

TORONTO – Black-clad demonstrators broke off from a crowd of peaceful demonstrators protesting a global economic summit in Toronto on Saturday, torching police cruisers and smashing windows with baseball bats and hammers. Police arrested more than 100 people. Police with shields and clubs pushed back the rogue protesters who tried to head south toward the security fence surrounding the perimeter of the Group of 20 summit site. Some demonstrators hurled bottles at police. "We have never seen that level of wanton criminality and vandalism and destruction on our streets," Toronto police chief Bill Blair said.

President Obama spent some time away from the traveling press corps last night, the Wall Street Journal reports. Obama is always accompanied by a "pool" reporter when he travels, who notes the president's movements and reports back to the rest of the White House reporters. But last night, with the President in Muskoka, Ontario for the G-8 summit, the White House sent the pooler away. From WSJ: Last night, the White House sent the press corps — which by agreement stays close to the president in order to report on any incident — back to Toronto, leaving the president 150...

When U.S. President Barack Obama stepped off his helicopter in Huntsville on Friday, the first thing he said was, “You’ve got a lot of golf courses here, don’t you?” Industry Minister Tony Clement told the National Post in an exclusive interview. “I told him, ‘We would really recommend and love it if you could come back here with Michelle and the kids at some point — we think you’d really love it here,’” Minister Clement said on the sidewalk of Huntsville’s Main Street, in his home riding. “I think I’ve planted a seed in the President’s mind.”

I guess we really shouldn't be surprised. After all, this is what Obama and his team of globalists wanted, wasn't it? It's pretty much what he promised his hate-America base. If anyone was listening, they would have heard it. US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has told the BBC that the world "cannot depend as much on the US as it did in the past". He said that other major economies would have to grow more for the global economy to prosper. He also played down any differences in policy between the US and Europe regarding deficit reduction. Mr Geithner was...

U.S. President Barack Obama laughs with Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron (C) and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the G8 Summit at the Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, Ontario June 25, 2010

The leaders of 20 leading economies will discuss the sinking of a South Korean warship at their summit later this week, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday. Spokesman Philip Crowley, however, said he was not sure if the leaders either at the G-20 summit or the G-8 economic summit in Canada will produce a joint statement blaming North Korea for the sinking of the Cheonan in the Yellow Sea in March, which killed 46 sailors. "I think the president will have the opportunity to meet with a range of leaders from the region," Crowley said. "I'm certain that the issue...

Russia has demanded member-states at the upcoming G-8 summit refrain from blaming North Korea for the sinking of a South Korean warship in a draft of the meeting's statement. Citing a Japanese government source, a Kyodo news report said the demand follows an investigation by a team of four Russian Navy submarine and torpedo experts into the March 26 sinking of the 'Cheonan' in the Yellow Sea in which 46 South Korean sailors drowned. Moscow says it has yet to reach an official conclusion on the warship sinking. The issue is likely to figure prominently at the summit starting in...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-press-secretary-visit-president-medvedev-russian-federation-white-house Home • Briefing Room • Statements & Releases The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release June 11, 2010 Statement by the Press Secretary on the Visit of President Medvedev of the Russian Federation to the White House President Obama is pleased to welcome President Dmitriy Medvedev of the Russian Federation to the United States on June 22-24. Over the last eighteen months, the United States and Russia have made significant strides in resetting relations between our two countries in ways that advance our mutual interests. Since first meeting...

A powder sent to the American embassy in Rome during last week's G8 in Italy was the ashes of the sender's wife, it emerged today. Officials at the embassy went into overdrive when the envelope arrived last Wednesday, just hours before President Barack Obama arrived in the Italian capital for the summit. The post room of the building was sealed off and staff evacuated as police scientists in protective overalls arrived to take the powder away amid fears it could be an anthrax terror attack.

Lineup of G8 leaders at a summit this year in L’Aquila, Italy.

Obama Shakes Hands With Libya's Qaddafi President Obama's gesture was his latest effort to reach out to controversial world leaders in an attempt to improve the United States' standing around the world that he says was damaged by former President Bush's unilateral diplomacy. [Pic in URL: US President Barack Obama, right,and Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi pictured during the G8/G5 summit in L'Aquila, Italy Thursday July 9, 2009. (AP) President Obama shook hands with Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi Thursday, a sign that relations have improved considerably between the U.S. and the North African nation. The two met as they posed for...

Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi has lashed out at the United States by likening the 1986 U.S. Strikes on Libya to Osama bin Laden's terror attacks on the United States in 2001. He was speaking Thursday in Rome, where he is on a three-day official visit. In a speech to Italian lawmakers, Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi urged the world to understand the reasons that motivate terrorists. He called for dialogue with terrorists, saying, "One must talk to the devil, if it brings about a solution." While condemning al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden, he implied there was little difference between bin Laden's...

UNFORTUNATELY, Chi na's president had to dash home to suppress ethnic riots. Had he stayed in Italy at the recent G-8 summit, he could have continued the Herculean task of disabusing Barack Obama of his amazingly durable belief (shared by Congress) that China -- and India, Brazil, Mexico and other developing nations -- will sacrifice their modernization on the altar of climate change. China has a more pressing agenda, and not even suppressing riots tops the list. China made this clear in June, when its vice premier said, opaquely, that China would "actively" participate in climate-change talks on a basis...

A split between rich and poor nations in the run-up to climate-change talks widened on Thursday. India rejected key scientific findings on global warming... Jairam Ramesh, the Indian environment minister, accused the developed world of needlessly raising alarm over melting Himalayan glaciers. He dismissed scientists’ predictions that Himalayan glaciers might disappear within 40 years as a result of global warming. Mr Ramesh was also clear that India would not take on targets to cut its emissions,

Russia’s provocative U-turn signalled clearly that G8 pronouncements are immaterial and should not be taken too seriously. In reality, Moscow has no intention whatsoever to cut its emissions in the near future. Quite the opposite. Just over a month ago, the Russian President announced that his country intended to increase CO2 emissions by 30% by 2020. No wonder that G8 states find it impossible to agree on a credible, short-term emissions target as the developing world is demanding. No wonder then that India and China remain opposed to any target setting. Neither can afford to sign up to mandatory emissions...

House Democratic leaders must be in a state of shock. The EPA announced that the Waxman-Markey Bill, the cap-and-trade bill, would not “materially effect global carbon concentrations in the atmosphere.” Why then are Americans being asked to take on $9 trillion ($9,000,000,000,000) worth of spending from 2012-2050 for nothing? Sen. Inhofe (R - Okla.) said “that unilateral action by the U.S. will be all cost for no climate gain…. acting alone through the job-killing Waxman-Markey bill would impose severe economic burdens on American consumers, businesses, and families, all without any impact on climate.”

Note: The following text is a quote: July 9, 2009 Global G-8 operation targeting cash couriers nets more than $7 million NAPLES, Italy - Law enforcement agencies from the Group of Eight (G-8) countries announced today the results of an unprecedented multilateral cash courier operation, which netted more than $3.5 million dollars in 81 cash seizures and detected another $4.2 million in undeclared currency at ports of entry around the world. The operation was developed through the G8 Roma/Lyon group and illustrates the value of close, real-time, international collaboration in identifying and fighting currency smuggling. Cash smuggling is a crime...

Benedict XVI returns to the principal themes of his social encyclical reaffirming the need for a global commitment to development, to eliminate "social inequality and structural injustices that are no longer tolerable." The social question has become an "anthropological” issue which implies a way of conceiving man in truth, body and soul. Prayers for Honduras and a farewell ahead of holidays in Les Combes (Aosta Valley). Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "The absolutism of technology, which finds its clearest expression in certain practices contrary to life�, could "draw dark scenarios for the future of humanity": Benedict XVI returns to warn against...

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "The absolutism of technology, which finds its clearest expression in certain practices contrary to life”, could "draw dark scenarios for the future of humanity": Benedict XVI returns to warn against a development that is only concerned with technological progress, bringing with it the manipulation of embryos, abortion, euthanasia, sterilization, birth control under the pretext of wanting to promote human development. At today's Angelus address the pontiff reiterated the views expressed in his recently published social encyclical, Caritas in Veritate. "Acts that do not respect the true dignity of the person - said the pope - even...

MIDI SITE FOR Lookin' Out My Back Door

NEW DELHI: Has India blinked in the climate change negotiations? This seems to be the case as at the Major Economies Forum meeting in Italy, India has gone back on some of its key principles -- like a refusal to accept emission caps -- that it held to be non-negotiable till just before the G-8 meet in Italy. In the course of some tough negotiations, India appears to have bent a bit in the face of pressure from industrialized countries, and the biggest compromise at the MEF was to accept that all countries would work to reduce emissions in order...

L'AQUILA, Italy -- President Obama's debut performance at a G-8 summit is playing to rave reviews from his counterparts Friday, with Italian President Silvio Berlusconi telling reporters the American "has done everything absolutely right" on foreign policy so far. "I was impressed but so were all our colleagues. I can tell you that we are all very favorably impressed with President Obama," he said. The praise follows a day after the leaders gathered here for the Group of Eight leading economies summit greeted Mr. Obama with applause when he showed up for their traditional group photo.

As nature and science continue to take the steam out of the global-warming balloon, the recent G8 summit produced a tentative promise that leading industrialized nations won't let the planet's temperature rise higher than 3.6 F above some arbitrary period before tailpipes. Since the earth has cooled 1.8 F (1 C) since 1998, it's unlikely action will be required anytime soon. So what do the "leaders" propose to do if on some distant date the planet exceeds their capricious temperature limit? They didn't say. But warmists' unshakable egoism notwithstanding, humans are powerless to alter the climate, intentionally or otherwise. How...

18:1010/07/2009 L'AQUILA, July 10 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday he had been given an example coin of a possible global currency at the G8 summit in Italy, adding that all aspects of reserve currencies were under discussion. "We are discussing both the use of other national currencies, including the ruble, as a reserve currency, as well as supranational currencies," the Russian leader said at a news conference following the G8 summit. Medvedev showed reporters an example of a coin of a supranational currency, which he called a "united future world currency." "This is a symbol...

L'AQUILA, Italy (AFP) – US President Barack Obama cranked up pressure on Iran by saying Friday world leaders were "appalled" at post-poll violence and would not stand idly by while Iran builds a nuclear weapon. Welcoming a rare consensus on Iran among the globe's most powerful nations at the L'Aquila summit, Obama told reporters he hoped Tehran would recognize that "world opinion is very clear". The G8 joint declaration expressed "serious concern" over post-election violence in Iran but called for a negotiated resolution to the standoff over Tehran's nuclear programme, giving it until September's G20 summit. "And that's been always...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for a revamp of the global currency system, saying Thursday that the dollar's supremacy is outdated. "We need to ask the question: shouldn't a world that is politically multi-polar correspond to a multi-monetary world economically?" he said in a news conference during a summit of world leaders in L'Aquila, Italy. Sarkozy compared an overhaul of the global currency system to the enlargement of the Group of Eight structure to encompass fast-growing emerging economies, which were invited to join the Italian summit. He said the supremacy of the dollar belongs to the post-Second World War era...

Wealthy nations agree on temperature cap in fight against global warming.... leaders of the world's richest industrial countries pledged Wednesday to seek dramatic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to slow dangerous climate change. They agreed for the first time that worldwide temperatures must not rise more than a few degrees. However, their goals are nonbinding, and it's far from clear they will be met. The wealthy nations failed to persuade the leaders of big developing countries to promise to cut their own fast-spreading pollution, unable to overcome arguments that the well-established industrial giants aren't doing enough in the...

The news from Italy is that the G8 leaders have decided to keep the Earth from warming 2 degrees Celsius. This is significant mainly because the Earth isn't warming up in the first place, and just what would this bunch of stuffed suits really do about it if it were? This is disturbing on so many levels - we had to discuss a few of them. In other delusional news, we also found out that the col More..lective good vibes from dashboard crystals are what are actually preventing the Earth from crashing into the sun, and that objects are held...

A unilateral attack by Israel against Iran to thwart the Islamic republic's nuclear ambitions would be an "absolute catastrophe," AFP quoted French President Nicolas Sarkozy as warning on Thursday. Sarkozy was speaking after a summit of the Group of Eight and other leaders in Italy at which they agreed on the need to pursue a negotiated deal with Tehran to halt its nuclear program.

Climate Change: Channeling King Canute, G-8 leaders agree to wreck the world's economy, and ours, by pledging to prevent temperatures from rising more than 4 degrees by 2050. What if the Earth has other plans?Canute was the legendary king whose sycophantic followers praised his power and wisdom. He was The One of his time. He once stood on the shore and commanded the waves to halt. As the story goes, he was exercising his ego when in fact he was giving his followers a dose of reality — the power of man over nature is finite and inconsequential. We were...

Add this to the list of apologies..."In the past the United States has fallen short of meeting it's responsibilities"...(Video)

U.S. President Barack Obama (C) and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (R) take their places with junior G8 delegates for a family photo at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, July 9, 2009.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Group of Eight summit in L'Aquila, Italy, offered some world leaders the opportunity to squeeze in a visit to meet with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. The pope then used the occasion to present leaders with a special copy of his first social encyclical, "Caritas in Veritate" ("Charity in Truth"), which the Vatican released July 7, the day before the G-8 summit began. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd met with the pope in a 25-minute closed-door meeting July 9. Australia is not part of the Group of Eight industrialized nations, but was among the...

International Organizations = Global Incompetence L'AQUILA, Italy (AP) - President Barack Obama and other leaders at the Group of Eight summit have struck a new agreement on fighting global warming. Consider the ridiculousness of this statement by our president: “We have agreed for the first time that average global temperatures must rise by no more than 2C."This is folly. Why not demand the wind stop blowing? It spreads air pollution around and messes up women's hair-dos. Why don't they just have Obama rebuke the global atmosphere? "Peace, be still!" No, wait. That was Jesus calming the seas...Santa Claus and Witches...