by Paul Craig Roberts
Infowars.com

T h e I n t e r n a t i o n a l Monetary Fund’s director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was arrested last Sunday in New York City on the allegation of an immigrant hotel maid that he attempted to rape her in his hotel room. A New York judge has denied Strauss-Kahn bail on the grounds that he might flee to France.

President Bill Clinton survived his sexual escapades, because he was a servant to the system, not a threat. But Strauss-Kahn, like former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, was a threat to the system, and, like Eliot Spitzer, Strass- Kahn has been deleted from the power ranks. Strauss-Kahn was the first IMF director in my lifetime, if memory serves, who disavowed the traditional IMF policy of imposing on the poor and ordinary people the cost of bailing out Wall Street and the Western banks. Strauss-Kahn said that regulation had to be reimposed on the greeddriven, fraud-prone financial sector, which, unregulated, destroyed the lives of ordinary people. Strauss-Kahn listened to Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz, one of a handful of economists who has a social conscience.

P e r h a p s t h e m o s t dangerous black mark in Strauss-Kahn’s book is that he was far ahead of America’s French puppet, President Sarkozy, in the upcoming French elections. Strauss-Kahn simply had to be eliminated.

It is possible that Strauss-Kahn eliminated himself and saved Washington the trouble. However, as a well-travelled person who has often stayed in New York hotels and in hotels in cities around the world, I have never experienced a maid entering unannounced into my room, much less when I was in the shower.

In the spun story, Strauss-Kahn is portrayed as so deprived of sex that he attempted to rape a hotel maid. Anyone who ever served on the staff of a powerful public figure knows that this is unlikely. On a senator’s staff on which I served, there were two aides whose job was to make certain that no woman, with the exception of his wife, was ever alone with the senator. This was done to protect the senator both from female power groupies, who lust after celebrities and powerful men, and from women sent by a rival on missions to compromise an opponent. A powerful man such as Strauss-Kahn would not have been starved for women, and as a multimillionaire he could certainly afford to make his own discreet arrangements.

As Henry Kissinger said, “power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.” In politics, sex is handed out as favors and payoffs, and it is used as a honey trap. Some Americans will remember that Senator Packwood’s long career (1969-1995) was destroyed by a female lobbyist, suspected, according to rumors, of sexual conquests of Senators, who charged that Packwood propositioned her in his office. Perhaps what inspired the charge was that Packwood was in the way of her employer’s legislative agenda. Even those who exercise care can be framed by allegations of an event to which there are no witnesses. On May 16 the British Daily Mail reported that prior to Strauss-Kahn’s fateful departure for New York, the French newspaper, Liberation, published comments he made while discussing his plans to challenge Sarkozy for the presidency of France. Strauss-Kahn said that as he was the clear favorite to beat Sarkozy, he would be subjected to a smear campaign by Sarkozy and his interior minister, Glaude Gueant. Strauss-Kahn predicted that a woman would be offered between 500,000 and 1,000,000 euros (more than $1,000,000) to make up a story that he raped her. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1387625/IMF-chief-Dominique-Strauss-Kahnfeared-political-enemy-paywoman-allege-rape.html

The Daily Mail reports that Strauss-Kahn’s suspicions are supported by the fact that the first person to break the news of Strauss-Kahn’s arrest was an activist in Mr Sarkozy’s UMP party – who apparently knew about the scandal before it happened. Jonathan Pinet, a politics student, tweeted the news just before the New York Police Department made it public, although he said that he simply had a ‘friend’ working at the Sofitel where the attack was said to have happened. The first person to re-tweet Mr Pinet was Arnaud Dassier, a spin doctor who had previously publicized details of multi-millionaire Strauss-Kahn’s luxurious lifestyle in a bid to dent his left wing credentials.

Strauss-Kahn could just as easily been set up by rivals inside the IMF, as well as by rivals within the French political establishment.

Michelle Sabban, a senior councillor for the greater Paris region and a Strauss-Kahn loyalist said: ‘I am convinced it is an international conspiracy.’

She added: ‘It’s the IMF they wanted to decapitate, not so much the Socialist primary candidate. ‘It’s not like him. Everyone knows that his weakness is seduction, women. That’s how they got him.’ Even some of Strauss-Kahn’s rivals said they could not believe the news. ‘It is totally hallucinatory,’ said centrist Dominique Paille.

‘If it is true, this would be a historic moment, but in the negative sense, for French political life. I hope that everyone respects the presumption of  innocence. I cannot manage to believe this affair.’ And Henri de Raincourt, minister for overseas co-operation in President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government, added: ‘We cannot rule out the thought of a trap.’

Michelle Sabban is on to something when she says the IMF was the target. Strauss-Kahn is the first IMF director who is not lined up on the side of the rich against the poor. Strauss-Kahn’s suspicions were of Sarkozy, but Wall Street and the US government also had strong reasons to eliminate him. Wall Street is terrified by the prospect of regulation, and Washington was embarrassed by the recent IMF report that China’s economy would surpass the US economy within fi ve years. An international conspiracy is not out of the question.

Indeed, the plot is unfolding as a conspiracy. Authorities have produced a French woman who claims she was a near rape victim of Strauss-Kahn a decade ago. It would be interesting to know whether this allegation is the result of a threat or a bribe. As in the case of Julian Assange, there are now two women to accuse Strauss-Kahn. Once the prosecutors get the odds of two females against one male, they win in the media.

It has not been revealed how the authorities knew Strauss-Kahn was on a fl ight to France. However, by arresting him aboard his scheduled flight just as it was to depart, the authorities created the image of a man fl eeing from a crime.

The way Amerikan justice (sic) works is that prosecutors in about 96 percent of the cases get a plea bargain. US prosecutors are permitted by judges and the public to pay for testimony against the defendant and to put sufficient pressure on innocent defendants to coerce them into making a guilty plea in exchange for lesser charges and a lighter sentence. Unless the hotel maid has a spell of bad conscience and admits she was paid to lie, or gets cold feet about perjuring herself, Strauss-Kahn is likely to fi nd that Amerikan criminal justice (sic) is organized to produce conviction regardless of innocence or guilt.

­On May 16, the day folpero lowing Strauss-Kahn’s arrest, the US Supreme Court threw its weight behind the Amerikan police state by destroying the remains of the Fourth Amendment with an 8-1 ruling that, the U.S. Constitution notwithstanding, Amerika’s police do not need warrants to invade homes and search persons. This ruling is more evidence that every American is regarded as a potential enemy of the state, not only by Airport Security but also by the high muckety- mucks in Washington.

The conservatives’ “war on crime” has created a police state, and conservatives, who originally stood for limited government and civil liberty, are euphoric over the expanded and unaccountable powers that a conservative Supreme Court has handed to the police.

On the same day the federal government reached the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, which forced the Treasury to “borrow” money from federal employee pensions in order to continue funding Amerika’s illegal wars and crimes against humanity. The breached debt ceiling serves as an appropriate marker for a country that has squandered its constitutional heritage and has arrived at moral as well as fiscal bankruptcy.

— Dr. Paul Craig Roberts is the father of Reaganomics and the former head of policy at the Department of Treasury. He is a columnist and was previously an editor for the Wall Street Journal. His latest book, “How the Economy Was Lost: The War of the Worlds,” details why America is disintegrating.

­by Kristian Hernández

Former undocumented journalist Rubén Vives covers a news event.

L O S A N G E L E S — He is a testament to the undocumented immigrant student’s hopes and dreams of reaching the summit to change the world. Rubén Vives, a 32-yearold Los Angeles Times reporter, was awarded the Gold Medal for Public Service, the most prestigious of the Pulitzer Prizes, on April 18, for his work with colleague Jeff Gotlieb exposing corruption in the city of Bell, Calif. Their investigative work led to the indictment of eight city officials on corruption charges.

In a column for Orange Coast Magazine, Shawn Hubler writes about her relationship to Vives and his mother, who once worked as a nanny for Hubler. “Her son was a 17-year-old high school student then. Quiet. Polite. Smart, too — college-smart, we’d tell the nanny, who’d just smile. Proud, we thought.”

At that young age, Vives faced deportation because of his illegal immigration status. He was brought to California from Guatemala by his mother at age six. Hubler, a former Times employee, helped him gain legal permission to remain in the United States. Enrolling in California State University-Fullerton, Vives began working at the Times as a copy messenger and later in a clerical job. Three years ago, he was given a shot at the Homicide Report, one of the most exhaustive jobs at the Times, according to coworker James Rainey. Rainey adds in an article for the Times that this is where Vives, among so much death, was “born” as a reporter.

Last July Vives and Gotlieb, 57, teamed to cover Bell, a 90 percent – Latino town of 37,000 residents. When they asked to interview non-Hispanic city administrator Robert Rizzo, they were denied a meeting.

The pair pushed on and uncovered that Rizzo was the highest-paid city administrator in the nation. His salary was $787,637, they found. Unbeknownst to the taxpaying public, other Bell officials were also being overgenerously compensated.

Police Chief Randy Adams received a $457,000 annual salary to run a department employing 33 officers and 46 civilian personnel. A few miles away, Los Angeles police chief Charlie Beck was paid nearly $100,000 less directing a department of 12,899 civilian personnel and 9,959 ­officers. Rizzo’s assistant, Angela Spaccia, was paid $376,288, almost equal to President Barrack Obama’s annual wage of $400,000.

Other Times’ journalists who contributed to the story’s research and development included Robert López, Paloma Esquivel, Héctor Becerra and with editing aid, former Hispanic Link reporter Efraín Hernández. The exposé resulted in eight arrests, including Rizzo and Mayor Oscar Hernández. It also resulted in passage of a bill by the California legislature requiring cities to post their officials’ salaries online.

­

by John Phillip

Melatonin is a powerful natural hormone that is well known for its association with circadian rhythms that promote a healthful sleep cycle. Researchers from the University of Granada reporting in the Journal of Pineal Research have found that melatonin helps to control unnatural weight gain without reducing the intake of food. The hormone was shown to improve blood lipid profiles, to lower triglycerides and oxidized LDL cholesterol and to boost health-promoting HDL cholesterol. Found naturally in certain fruits and vegetables, small quantities are shown to provide a powerful array of health benefits and to promote deep sleep that is so critical to systemic repair functions throughout the body.

Melatonin is a natural hormone normally secreted by the pineal gland at night time to encourage sleep. Circulating levels trail off during the early morning hours to help us awaken. The importance of 7 to 9 hours of restful sleep is paramount to cellular repair and maintenance functions that promote vibrant health. New research demonstrates that melatonin exerts control over metabolic functions that determine fat accumulation, obesity and lipids and helps prevent cardiovascular disease. Researchers broke test subjects into three groups where one cohort was supplemented with melatonin.

They found that the melatonin supplemented group experienced a significant reduction in body weight with no difference in calories consumed as compared with the non-supplemented subjects. Additionally, they determined that melatonin helped to lower systolic blood pressure and provided a significant improvement in dyslipidemia and hypertriglyceridemia. Improvements in blood lipid ratios and in lowering of circulating triglycerides are critical to reducing the overall risk of heart disease.

­Melatonin is naturally found in some fruits and vegetables including mustard, Goji berries, almonds, sunflower seeds, cardamom, fennel, coriander and cherries. The researchers publishing the result of this study believe this is the first proof that melatonin can act as a critical hormonal agent in the fi ght against cardiovascular disease and lipid dysfunction. They did note that the protective effect of melatonin was more pronounced in younger subjects in this study prompting dietary intervention or supplementation at an earlier age to yield maximum health benefits.

The study authors concluded “administration of melatonin and intake of food containing melatonin might be a useful tool to fi ght obesity and the risks associated to it.” In addition to natural food sources, many health-minded individuals will want to supplement with 1 to 3 mg of melatonin each night, taken 30 minutes before retiring, to promote sound sleep, avoid unnecessary weight gain and ward off the damaging effects of oxidized blood fats that promote heart disease.

­by the El Reportero’s news services

Enrique Peña Nieto

Enrique Peña Nieto, the current governor of the Estado de México and the opinion poll frontrunner for the 2012 presidential elections, is starting to set the political tone. Some commentators allude to his growing influence by calling him the 501st (and most powerful) member of the 500-seat congress, because he has indicated that he does not want congress to consider the current government’s stalled political reforms in a special session. Congress, which is dominated by Peña Nieto’s Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), has taken the hint. If there is no special session nothing will be changed in time for next year’s elections.

How U.S. policy will change after Valenzuela

On May 5 Arturo Valenzuela, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, let it be known that he was resigning. Valenzuela is returning to academia: he had left Georgetown University on a two-year leave of absence in 2009. His period as the US’s chief policy maker towards Latin America has seen a major change in the ­relationship, as President Barack Obama had promised.

The U.S. now has professional diplomats heading its missions across the region and reacts much more calmly to provocative behavior by taunting presidents such as Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and Hugo Chávez in Venezuela. The traditional US policy of treating Latin America as its “backyard” has ended. This change has an economic price, as the region’s relationship with China has blossomed. Strategically, however, the region has preferred to integrate rather than to ally itself with rivals to the U.S.

Chávez welds moderate foreign policy to domestic agenda

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez is gearing up for his re-election bid next year with a concerted effort to court the middle class. Chávez never really steps out of campaign mode but his adoption of a more moderate foreign policy, in conjunction with domestic economic policy changes, suggests he feels the need to reach beyond his core support base among the poor to the middle class. This comes as his most likely rival in December 2012, Henrique Capriles Radonski, just 38 and the politician with the greatest chance of defeating Chávez according to recent polls, announced his intention to compete in the opposition party primaries on Feb. 12 next year.

‘ Pacific Alliance’ and ‘OAS without US’ come onstage

The last week of April witnessed the emergence of two regional organizations in Latin America: the Alianza del Pacífico (AP; Pacific Alliance), formed by four countries committed to free trade and enterprise, and the Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños (Celac; Community of Latin American and Caribbean States), which includes all countries in the hemisphere save the US and Canada. Presidents Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela have fi gured prominently among those promoting these developments: the former in his bid to pull Colombia out of its long period of isolation, the latter seeking to prevent further deterioration of his country’s regional infl uence.