Housing Sinks, Wall St. STINKS!!!

I'd need ten pairs of hands to keep up with all the outrage blasting over the Internet regarding corporate welfare. Strangely, Joe Q. Citizen still doesn't get it. But let's take some comfort knowing at least the issue is finally out there, after years of fiscal insanity. Here's a a little something to do today:
Save Downpayment Assistance Programs
Target: U.S. House of Representatives
Sponsored by: The Nehemiah Program
Since 1997, downpayment assistance (DPA) programs have helped more than 1 million families become homeowners. But the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 eliminated these programs when President Bush signed it into law on July 30, 2008.
While that housing bill was intended to "rescue" the housing industry, the elimination of the DPA program will have the exact opposite effect. Not only did it eliminate DPA programs, it also instituted a downpayment requirement increase from 3 percent to 3.5 percent. This combination is a recipe for disaster and will further hurt the already crippled housing market.
Fortunately, Congress has worked to remedy the problem. The FHA Seller-Financed Downpayment Reform and Risk-Based Pricing Authorization Act of 2008 (H.R. 6694) would allow downpayment assistance programs to continue, help families who are credit-worthy, protect the already fragile economy, improve the current housing market and save jobs.
Urge your representative to support H.R. 6694 today!
Thank you for everything you do.
Sincerely,
Robyn E.
Care2 and ThePetitionSite Team

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/700608542?z00m=16828725

Saudis Prepare for Nuclear Fallout

The day after Big Dick Cheney visits, the Saudis decide heaven can wait.

Saudi Shura council to discuss plan for sudden radioactive hazards
dpa - International News Service in English
Mar 22, 2008 07:56 EST
Riyadh (dpa) - The Saudi Shura council will secretly discuss national plans to deal with any sudden nuclear and radioactive hazards that may affect the kingdom following experts' warnings of possible attacks on Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactors, media reports said Saturday.
The Saudi-based King Abdul-Aziz City for Science and Technology has prepared a proposal that encapsulates the probabilities of leaking nuclear and radiation hazards in case of any unexpected nuclear attacks in Iran, the Okaz Saudi newspaper said.

http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=96940/

Here is an old report I found while searching for pictures to accompany the above. It scared the shit out me. The link is at the bottom if you can stomach reading the whole thing:

This article originally appeared at the Wayne Madson Report.
Bush administration finalizing plans for attack on Iran

by Wayne Madson
January 2, 2006 -- Intelligence indications and warnings abound as Bush administration finalizes military attack on Iran.
[...] Likely targets for saturation bombing are the Bushehr nuclear power plant (where Russian and other foreign national technicians are present), a uranium mining site in Saghand near the city of Yazd, the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, a heavy water plant and radioisotope facility in Arak, the Ardekan Nuclear Fuel Unit, the Uranium Conversion Facility and Nuclear Technology Center in Isfahan, the Tehran Nuclear Research Center, the Tehran Molybdenum, Iodine and Xenon Radioisotope Production Facility, the Tehran Jabr Ibn Hayan Multipurpose Laboratories, the Kalaye Electric Company in the Tehran suburbs, a reportedly dismantled uranium enrichment plant in Lashkar Abad, and the Radioactive Waste Storage Units in Karaj and Anarak.
[...] Southeast Asian intelligence sources report that Burma's (Myanmar's) recent abrupt decision to move its capital from Rangoon (Yangon) to remote Pyinmana, 200 miles to the north, is a result of Chinese intelligence warnings to its Burmese allies about the effects of radiation resulting from a U.S. conventional or tactical nuclear attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. There is concern that a series of attacks on Iranian nuclear installations will create a Chernobyl-like radioactive cloud that would be caught up in monsoon weather in the Indian Ocean. http://www.worldthreats.com/middle_east/Wayne_Madson.htm

500 Anti-War Activists Arrested in Brussels!

Just as Tibetans around the world (especially those IN Tibet), gain courage from knowing they are supported, we in the US anti-war community can look overseas and know, as another anti-war group so wisely said: the world won’t wait!
Belgian police arrest 500 at NATO headquarters
dpa - International News Service in English, Mar 22, 2008 14:35 EST
Brussels (dpa) - Belgian police arrested nearly 500 demonstrators Saturday at NATO headquarters in Brussels as peace activists from 17 countries had tried to enter the grounds.
A Belgian peace initiative had called the protest under the motto "NATO game over" to prompt a debate on the alliance's role in the world.
Organizers and police put the total number of demonstrators at around 1,000.
"NATO is a relict of the Cold War," said Hans Lammerant of the Belgian peace organization Vredesactie which has called for a reduction of military intervention forces in the run-up to the NATO summit in Bucharest.
"A fundamental reform of NATO is on the agenda there. They want to present a new, strategic concept on the 60th anniversary of NATO in 2009," he said, adding military expenditure should be lowered.
Huge numbers of police took up positions around NATO's headquarters early Saturday.
Police had been monitoring the situation from a helicopter and also used a water cannon to disperse demonstrators.
The peace activists had armed themselves with rugs in order to climb over the barbed wire fence uninjured.
Those arrested were later released far from NATO's headquarters.
Italy's RAI Telegiornale reported that some were injured because they fell on barbed wire.

http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=97151